Verge of Extinction
by DragonShadow
Summary: Epilogue: Never to be Forgotten. For many people, a new day has just begun, with a lot left to do and to learn.
1. Gross Encounters of the Third Kind

(Author's Notes: Episode 4 of the "Growing Up Creepier" series, updated daily until completion

"Grossology" created and owned by Nelvana LTD.

Rated "T" for action-violence, blood, suggestive dialogue, nudity, intense imagery, and mild language. Reader discretion is advised.)

**Verge of Extinction  
**Chapter 01: Gross Encounters of the Third Kind

Man rescued from lake by loyal llama. Girl falls off of tricycle into other dimension. Man mistakes Hot Dog for finger, tries to have it sewn back on.

The headlines scrolled past in a blur as Skipper's finger pounded again and again on the down key on the keyboard in front of him. He could barely see well enough by now to recognize the letters in front of him, but he refused to give up. Over a month now… for over a month Creepie had been gone and everyone else had given up hope. Even Creepie's best friends, Budge, Chris-Alice, Raven, were going on with their lives… but he refused. He wouldn't, he couldn't, do that. She was the only reason he was happy to be human now.

He twitched and grunted when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. Maria Suarez's voice spoke in a soft, but firm tone. "Come on Skipper, it's getting late. Nobody ever rescued a princess while they were on the verge of exhaustion."

"I'll go to bed in a few more minutes. I think I'm almost through this batch." Skipper replied numbly. He had been spending all of the time he could spare at Maria's house, looking through the day's news stories for any sign of strange creatures popping up anywhere. If someone saw Creepie, it would definitely be in the news somewhere. The only place anyone knew about her was in Middlington, she was still unknown everywhere else, and a human-sized bug showing up would definitely catch some sort of media attention.

"Alright, fine, just don't push yourself too hard, kid. I want to find her too, but eventually you have to accept that maybe…" Maria trailed off when she realized her words were falling on deaf ears. Silently she patted his shoulder and turns to leave, leaving the overhead light on for him as she turned to make her way to her bedroom.

"Come on Creepie…" Skipper yawned, feeling his eyelids grow too heavy to hold open. "I know you're out there somewhere…" He didn't even feel his head hit the desk as he fell into a deep sleep.

***

"We're approaching the water treatment plant." A boy spoke in a strong tone over the hum of the engine that kept them soaring high over the town, its treads dangling down toward the ground as the green bullet-like ship pierced the sky. The boy reached forward with one orange-gloved hand, flicking a few switches n the ship's dashboard. "The GRS1 is responding nice and smoothly. It looks like Lab Rat's improvements are holding… this is so cool. Nobody's going to be able to touch us as long as we're in this thing."

"Yeah well, it's just too bad we can't take it into a building with us." His big sister glanced over from the seat beside him, her eyes shining behind the dim green visor of her Slime Suit as their ship hovered down toward the ground in front of a massive metal building. She reached forward and pressed the controls to open the GRS1 cockpit, standing and looking over the windshield at the door. "Looks like we're going in the old fashioned way, Ty."

"Ugh, what's the point of new features on the ship if we don't get to use them?" Ty sighed, then gasped as his sister leapt out of the ship to rush towards the door. "Hey, Abby, wait for me!" He leapt out of the ship to join her by the door, each of them on either side of it, resting their backs against the wall.

Abby Archer made a few quick gestures to her brother, then they both reached into their backpacks in unison and pulled out a pair of shining metal cannons, which slid smoothly over each of their right hands. Abby made a few more gestures with her left hand before sliding quickly into the building, stepping nimbly toward the metal railing that overlooked the massive containers of water in the center of the building. The thunderous noise of suction pumps moving water through the pipes all around them drowned out what little noise she made, but she still remained silent as she gestured back for Ty to join her.

Ty rushed up to her side, his fingers sliding over the side of his visor as his eyes scanned the dark interior of the building. "I'm not picking up any signs of life in this room. Are we sure the information about the intrusion was legit?"

"Who knows? Lab Rat just said something about someone seeing massive numbers of bugs in the building." Abby rolled her eyes.

"So… we're just here as exterminators?" Ty groaned. "Sometimes I think the Director is really taking advantage of us. I have a math quiz in two days, you know."

"Oh come on, you'll pass it anyway." Abby smirked.

"Probably, but this study time could mean the difference between an A and an A+." Ty pointed out.

"My heart bleeds for your plus." Abby shook her head, then ducked down again as something flashed in her visor. "Hold on, I'm seeing something." She reached up to adjust the settings on her visor. She could definitely see something now, a tiny speck of heat zipping through the room by itself. Abby was about to call attention to it, but her eyes widened when suddenly thousands of other specks began to emerge, converging in the center of the room like a massive cloud of insects. "Ty, are you seeing this? Am I really seeing that massive swarm of bugs?"

"Yeah, it's unreal." Ty was rapidly tapping on the side of his visor. "That's not a normal swarm, I count at least a hundred different species of insect in that cloud, if not more, and most of them are natural enemies. There's no way they could act as one hive mind unless they were being controlled."

Abby and Ty exchanged a knowing glance. "Insectiva."

"I'm not sure what they're up to, but finding them in a water treatment plant can't mean anything good. Ready Lab Rat's latest modification." Abby tapped her fingers against the Goop Shooter on her right arm. She felt it hum and shift around her hand, taking a slightly different shape, with a smaller nozzle taking the place of its usual wide cannon. "Okay, on the count of three let's gas these bugs and take Insectiva down. One… two…"

"Three!" Abby and Ty Archer leapt over the railing together, sliding down one of the beams that held the platform in place before touching down and whirling on the bugs. A powerful stream of gas erupted form their Goop Shooters, plunging straight into the massive cloud of insects that still hovered over the water. The noise grew louder and more shrill, as if the bugs were screaming in surprise and terror as the swarm began to disperse.

If it had been a normal swarm, it would have dispersed completely… but it didn't. The swarm loomed large outside the range of their shooters, then began to shoot down toward them in pockets like miniature missiles. Powerful blasts of gas met each missile knocking it off-course as the bugs fled for their lives. The two Grossologists met threat after threat without hesitation, their Goop Shooters darting around in a wide radius above them.

"Yeah, we've got you guys licked!" Abby grinned as another blast from her cannon took down a barrage of what looked like moths, though she'd never known moths to attack anything. "Now why doesn't your master show herself? We know she's here!"

Abby readied herself for further assaults, but the swarm of bugs didn't attack. Instead, they regrouped toward the top of the building, hovering right over their heads as their buzzing grew ever louder and more fearsome. Abby kept her Goop Shooter trained on the swarm, but Ty lowered his to stare up at the swarm in awe. "Ty, this is no time to let your guard down." Abby warn through gritted teeth.

"But look at them…" Ty muttered in awe. "Doesn't it look like they're talking to each other? It's absolutely incredible…"

Abby finally lowered her Goop Shooter, realizing that he was right. It did look like the hovering swarm was talking among itself, the various individuals either shrieking at them or whispering to one-another in hushed tones covered up by the sound of their beating wings. "There's something weird going on here…" Abby muttered.

No sooner did she mutter her last sentence than she heard a sound that made her stomach churn and her Goop Shooter once again point to the sky. It was similar to the buzzing of insect wings, but the sound was so deep and massive it sounded almost more like helicopter blades spinning. "Ty, do you have any idea what makes a sound like that?"

"No clue, but it would take something huge. Keep your eyes open." Ty pressed his back against hers so they could watch as much of the building as possible. The deep wingbeats continued to pound at the air, growing louder by the moment, echoing throughout the massive metal building. They couldn't even tell where the sound was coming from, despite that it was now drowning out both the bug swarm above them and the pounding of the water through the pipes.

Abby didn't even have time to shout a warning when something split from the darkness, the wingbeats stopping for several seconds as the figure arched through the air towards them. The violet gossamer wings were still against its human-shaped back as it raised claw-like hands into the air above it, screaming in anger. Abby tried to bring her Goop Shooter around to fire, but the creature slammed into her, knocking her back against Ty and ultimately driving her to her back on the floor.

One of the creature's claws lashed at her Goop Shooter, ripping a painful gash in her arm and sending her weapon skittering across the floor in several sparkling pieces. Abby's arms shot up just in time to catch the round, humanoid head before it could come down on her. Its mouth gaped open right above her so that she could see the slick, venomous fangs bared, ready to plunge into her the second her strength gave out. Whatever this thing was, it was strong. She couldn't hold it forever.

"T-Ty!" Abby shouted as she struggled to hold the fangs back. "Help me!"

"I'm coming, Abby!" Ty scrambled to his feet and raised his own Goop Shooter towards them, but before he could fire the swarm of bugs swept from the ceiling and covered him like a ghostly blanket. "Hey! Ack! Get off! No, I can't see! Ow! Stop it! I've got to help Abby!" Ty struggled against the swarm so thick he couldn't even see through it, leaving Abby to fend for herself.

Grunting in fear and desperation, Abby pushed the head back slowly, glaring into its massive, but strangely human eyes. She couldn't see any thought process in those eyes, not even viciousness or hatred. It just looked like a drone, programmed to do what it was told to do… as if it was simply programmed to be angry. "Get… off of… me!" Abby hooked her legs around the creature and twisted her waist roughly, slamming the creature into the ground beside her and rolling the other way.

She was barely on her feet before the creature was launching itself at her again, its claws slashing in wide arcs for her torso. Abby was ready this time however, her arms snapping out in expert motions. Ignoring the burning pain of the gash in her right arm, she deflected the slashes by nudging them off-course away from her. This creature was amazingly fast, but it was mindless, throwing the same slashes the same way every time.

Finally Abby caught one of the slashes, grabbing its arm by the wrist and yanking it forward as she brought her knee up in a vicious strike on the creature's chin. It stumbled back, spinning from the force of the blow, but the instant it regained its footing it launched itself at her once again. Again Abby deflected several slashes before throwing out a palm strike against the creature's nose, sending it stumbling back once again.

The creature's recovery was almost instantaneous. "Come on… don't you ever get tired?" Abby huffed, tired and in pain from the gash on her arm. The creature was mindless, but it seemed like it could keep going forever, while Abby was quickly wearing down. She has to find a way to end this quickly and decisively.

The creature rushed her again, but this time Abby didn't deflect its slash, she dodged it, leaping under the arm and rolling across the metal floor. She stopped herself by slamming her feet into the bottom of the steps that led down from the entrance on the level above. She raised both legs and slammed them with all her might against one of the handrail support beams, hard enough to knock it clean off and send it clattering to the floor nearby.

She had underestimated her opponent's speed, however. The creature was on her before she could rise from the floor, but Abby brought both legs up just in time to catch it before it could drop right on top of her. Her heels slammed into its shoulders, pushing it back slightly, then she pushed off from the ground in a backward vault, slamming both of her heels into the creature's face with her upwards motion. The creature's back hit the floor with a heavy thud as Abby landed on her feet, then darted for the pipe.

She leaned down and grabbed the pipe just in time to meet the creature's next charge with a mighty swing. It slammed into the creature's torso with a sickening crack, sending it stumbling off to the side with a shriek of pain. "Can you understand me?" Abby demanded, holding the pipe in both hands as she stumbled toward the creature. "You look human. You've got to be able to understand me."

The creature whirled with another slash, but Abby spun the pipe, knocking its hand out of the way with jarring force before slamming the blunt tip of the pipe into its forehead with another sickening crack, knocking it to the floor where it groaned and raised a claw to its head. "Come on, there's got to be something bigger here. Did Insectiva send you? Where is she?"

The creature clawed its way to its hands and knees, groaning in pain as its wings lay limp against its back. Abby tensed herself to deflect another attack, but instead the creature leapt to its feet and charged for the stairway, rushing up towards the entrance she and Ty had used. "Hey! Where are you going!? What are you doing here!? Did someone send you!?" Abby demanded angrily.

"Everyone, let's get out of here!" Abby blinked when she heard the creature shout back into the building in a scratchy, but female voice. The swarm of bugs, which Ty had just been barely holding off with his Goop Shooter's spray mode, cut away from the battle and surged in a straight line up to the door, vanishing outside into the dim light of dusk beyond. The creature stared down at Abby for one more instant, its eyes looking even more human than before, before it whirled to follow the bugs outside.

"Darnit." Abby growled with a sigh. "We don't even know why it was here…"

"Abby!" Ty rushed up to her with a worried look on his face. "Are you okay? Y-your arm…"

Abby blinked and looked down, seeing for the first time that the gash the creature had left on her inner arm was bleeding, the blood sliding along the outside of her Slime Suit and creeping down the pipe she'd pried from the stairway. Abby dropped the pipe and gripped her arm with her free hand. "It just cut me, I'll get Lab Rat to look at it… you make sure they didn't do anything to the water supply. I hope we got here in time to stop whatever it was planning."

Ty nodded. "Right, I'll be right back, you just rest here." Ty turned to rush toward the control room while Abby sank down to her butt on the bottom of the stairs, holding her injured arm.

She didn't know what it was, she didn't know where it came from, and she didn't know what it wanted. Still, she couldn't stop thinking about it. Those eyes had seemed so human, and yet something was off. At times they had been mindless, drone-like, other times they had been sharp and contemplative, like there was a real human brain trapped inside there somewhere. Just what was that thing? A human… or a monster?

TOMORROW - Chapter 02: Uncertain Consequences


	2. Uncertain Consequences

Chapter 02: Uncertain Consequences

Skipper's eyes opened slowly and his hands moved along the smooth wood of the computer desk, eventually finding the keyboard just above his head. He pushed himself up to a sitting position, grunting as his aching spine cracked and creaked back into shape after spending the entire night hunched over. The first burning rays of sunlight were peaking in through the shades right beside the computer desk, shining down on the keyboard before him.

He thought for a moment to get something to eat, or a shower, or something else that would pertain to daily life… but instead he reached forward to refresh the web page and begin his search all over again, glancing over the headlines that had appeared in the night. He prepared himself to read through mountains of drivel, but almost instantly one headline caught his attention. 'Winged monster attacks town water supply.'

His heart racing Skipper opened the page, then leaped to his feet as the image appeared on the screen. It was black and white, and extremely blurry, an image of a winged creature perched on top of a strangely suited girl on the floor. It was a still image that didn't show much especially since it was so indistinct, but it showed more than enough for Skipper to be sure about who it was in the image.

"Maria!" Skipper ran to the door, screaming down the hallway towards the lone bedroom in the small house. "Maria, I found Creepie! I found her!"

***

"I'm glad you're both safe and relatively unharmed…" A voice spoke softly from a glowing monitor hung up on the wall of a hidden laboratory deep beneath the city streets. The screen was glowing upon the three kids who stood at attention in front of it, one clutching a small white rat to his chest as if seeking shelter from the inevitable wrath. Ty stood with his arms crossed over his stomach calmly, while Abby stood nursing the bandage wrapped around her right arm.

"Still, I fail to see what your excuse is for being bested so badly. You are two of the finest Grossologists we've ever had, and you came close to losing to Insectiva, a criminal you've brought down many times before." The Director shook his head with a trace of a sigh. "It always happens to the best Grossologists… they always lose their touch eventually. You even lost your Goop Shooter, Abigail."

"It wasn't Insectiva, sir, I keep telling you!" Abby stepped forward, waving her hand dramatically inside her yellow suit as if she could prove her point that way. "There was something else in there! Something dangerous! It attacked me! Those pictures from the camera prove it!"

"All I see in those images is a blur that managed to best my two best agents. It could be a little girl in a Halloween costume for all I know… in fact, it looks like one." The Director chuckled at his own joke, though the kids in the Gag Lab were unamused.

"I saw it too, sir!" Ty Archer stepped forward to help, his orange Slime Suit glowing dark in the light from the giant screen. "I couldn't even identify what kind of insect it was, it was almost as tall as us, almost… humanoid."

"A humanoid insect… so it WAS Insectiva." The Director insisted.

"No sir, definitely not." Abby gritted her teeth in frustration. "Trust us, it wasn't anything we've ever seen before, it wasn't anything ANYONE has ever seen before!"

"How about you?" the Director's gaze turned toward Lab Rat, who had been hiding in the corner clutching his rat, Hermes, for dear life. "Did you see this 'human insect'?"

Lab Rat looked up from his rat for the first time since the screen had flared to life, then glanced at his two partners, his two friends, who were watching him expectantly. After heaving a small sigh he shook his head and gave his answer, turning away from them. "No sir, I didn't see anything. I was in the Gag Lab the whole time."

"And what is your opinion of the situation? Scientifically." The Director asked.

Lab Rat hesitated for a long time before speaking. "It sounds biologically impossible, even with Insectiva's mutagen. The kind of thing they're talking about would take genetic manipulation way beyond anything mankind is currently capable of."

"I thought so." The Director smiled smugly and turned back to his two field agents. "Do you have anything else to say for yourselves?"

"No sir…" Abby muttered in a dark tone, glaring at the floor as if it had done her some personal wrong.

"Then I suppose you should think about what went wrong in such a simple assignment… if things don't improve, I'm afraid we may have to put you through retraining, or at worst, release you both from the organization." He raised his hand to silence the as they opened their mouths. "This is not open to negotiation. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." Abby and Ty muttered in unison.

"Good. We'll be in touch." The Director glared at them for one more moment before the screen went dead, and the lights in the Gag Lab flared to life.

Abby instantly whirled on Lab Rat, throwing her balled fists out to her sides. "I can't believe you didn't have our backs! What's wrong with you!? We would've lied a million times to save your butt! In fact, we HAVE!"

"Sorry Abby, I just couldn't do it." Lab Rat looked her right in the eye. "What you described is an impossibility, a hybrid between an insect and a warm-blooded mammal. Besides, even if it was theoretically possible to do this, it's still impossible for it to have grown to adulthood completely undetected. Someone would've seen it, it can't exist… maybe you didn't see what you thought you saw."

"I know what we saw!" Abby roared and waved her bandaged arm in his face, but she was interrupted before she could do any more yelling by her little brother stepping between them.

"Abby, cut it out!" Ty pushed her back and raised his hands to try to calm her down. "This isn't helping, and Lab Rat's right, it sounds ridiculous. Getting mad won't help anything."

"We both know what we saw Ty, I don't care if the laws of nature agree with us or not! If he was really our friend he would've had our backs, but I guess that's a little too much to ask from some gutless lab-jockey!" Abby glared at Lab Rat for one more moment before whirling to stomp toward the exit, her long fiery red ponytail swaying back and forth with the force of her anger.

"Don't worry about it, man." Ty said more softly once his scary sister was gone. "She'll get over it, and we'll find some sort of proof to back up our claims."

"Yeah well, you won't be looking for anything any time soon. We need a replacement Goop Shooter, and Abby's not going anywhere until we have it." Lab Rat composed himself quickly, letting Hermes jump back into place on his shoulder. "I've got to say Ty, I really hope you're wrong about this one."

"Really? Why?" Ty blinked.

"If the technology for what you're describing exists out there, and nobody knows about it… there's no telling what it could be used to create. Giant butterflies may be the least of our worries…"

***

"Rrgh!" Abby kicked a can on her way out of school, her clenched fists swaying at her sides as she moved out towards the street away from Ringworm Junior High in her civilian clothing. "I can't believe that rat turned on me. I have never been so betrayed in my entire life."

"Boy trouble, Abby?" A snide voice snickered from nearby. Abby's already sour mood only soured even more as she turned to face her long time rival and nemesis Paige, who was standing tall with her arms crossed over her chest. When Abby turned toward her she glanced down at the bandages on her arm with a gasp. "Oh, I always told you those sports would take their toll on you. I guess you're now officially more boy than girl."

Abby narrowed her eyes grumpily. "I'm really not in the mood for this, Paige."

Paige glared at her silently for a few moments, then huffed. "You know, this isn't fun if you don't fight back."

"Fun?" Abby raised one eyebrow. "You think fighting with you is fun?"

"Isn't it?"

Abby stared at her for a moment, then smirked. "Okay, you got me there. My day just isn't complete without watching you act like a total bi-"

"WELL!" Paige huffed before she could finish. "You really ARE snappy today, aren't you? Whatever's wrong, don't take it out on me."

"Ngh… you're right, sorry. It's not you… for once. I'm just having a generally bad day." Abby shook her head. "No, it's not boy related… mostly."

"Well get over it soon, I don't want you dragging everyone down right before my birthday." Paige stuck her nose up into the air with a bright, sickening smile on her face. "Speaking of which, Abby…" Paige reached into her purse and pulled out a bright pink envelope, with silver lettering on the front spelling Abby's name.

"You're inviting me?" Abby's eyes widened and she took the envelope in both hands, staring down at it in shock. "Seriously? This isn't some sort of prank?"

"Abby, sparring with you is fun, but I'm not going to ruin my own birthday just to take a crack at you." Paige smirked. "No, it's a real invitation, just be there and make me look good by comparison."

Abby rolled her eyes. "You were ALMOST nice, just a little bit and I might have gained some respect for you." Abby chuckled, staring down at the envelope, holding it like she might a piece of jewelry. "I'll let Ty know, we'll be there."

"Ty? Ick…" Paige shivered. "Absolutely not, no nerds are allowed to step foot into my back yard at ANY time, let alone at such an important time."

"But… he's my brother." Abby glared at Paige. "I'm not going to abandon him so I can come to some stupid party. Forget it, I'm not coming." Abby shoved the invitation into Paige's arms again.

Paige rolled her eyes. "Right, the 'selfless consideration' act. That act is so old it has mold on it, just take the invitation and maybe you'll 'change your mind'." Paige winked and shoves the invitation into one of the pockets in Abby's pants. "I'll see you there." She turned to leave with a snide smirk, jogging down the sidewalk after some of her friends, who were waiting in a group further down.

"Hmph…" Abby huffed again, glaring after her. "I can't believe she would-" she stopped suddenly when she felt something strange, like the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. She narrowed her eyes and glanced around, looking up and down the nearly empty street, populated only by those students who were late leaving school. Ty wasn't among them, she realized, probably still in the Gag Lab with the traitor…

Weird, she thought to herself as her free arm rose to rub the bandages under her sweater. For a second she was sure she was being watched… oh well. It was probably nothing, and she wasn't in the mood to deal with anything anyway. Right now she just wanted to be alone, preferably with a massive bucket of ice-cream. So she turned to head home, trying to pretend that nobody else existed.

***

"So even you were defeated by those Grossologists…" A woman's voice growled in raspy fury as bony frail arms grabbed at the air as if reaching for their throats.

"I'm sorry, your highness." Creepie Creecher closed her eyes and lowered her head solemnly. "I did the best I could, but they arrived before I could deliver the chemical into the water supply."

The woman sighed and turned towards her, her black lips splitting into a motherly smile as she approached to wrap Creepie up in a firm, tender hug. "It's alright, child, those Grossologists are greater pests than any insect known to mankind." She ran one of her palms over Creepie's cheek, a puff of smoke bursting from a small tube near her wrist right into Creepie's face. It made Creepie's eyes sting, but she didn't complain, blinking her way through it as her mind began to blur moments later. "We'll just have to remove them from the equation before we go forward with our plan."

"Yes, Your Highness…" Creepie spoke numbly.

"Thankfully, the encounter at the treatment plant was not without its benefit." The woman grinned past Creepie's head. Creepie turned to see her family splitting open down the middle so a tiny green bug could make her way up the center isle. "Was it?"

"Absolutely not." A soft, feminine voice came from the Preying Mantis that stood in the center of the insect pack. "They never even noticed me follow them home."

"Finally." The woman grinned broadly, rubbing her hands together. "Those Grossologists can't hide anymore. They won't stand between me and the destiny of the world, our destiny!" She whirled to march up to the edge of the cavern in which they hid, staring out over the town beyond as the twilight began to fall across the landscape. "The time of humans has come and gone, it is time for the insects to rise to their rightful place! Haaaahahahahaha!"

TOMORROW - Chapter 03: Quit Bugging Me


	3. Quit Bugging Me

Chapter 03: Quit Bugging Me

"You know that stuff's not good for you."

"Yeah, yeah." Abby grumbled around a spoonful of ice-cream, lounging on the couch and watching the recording she'd made of the Superbowl. Her mother was sitting on the couch beside her with a somewhat worried expression on her face, but Abby really wasn't in the mood for parental grilling. The worst part about working undercover for a secret branch of the Government was that she couldn't even confide in her parents when something went wrong at work or with one of her co-workers. Unless that co-worker was Ty, but no such luck this time.

"You know you can talk to me about anything, sweetie. Now come on, tell me what's up." Her mother plucked the spoon out of her mouth with a dull 'pop' and set it down in the bowl, staring at her face with a studying gaze.

"It's nothing, mom, I…" Abby sighed. "I had a fight with a close friend today."

"Oh dear, that's always tough." Her mother nodded.

"He totally stabbed me in the back when I was counting on him to back me up on something important." Abby growled. "And then he acts like I'M the jerk for yelling at him."

"Well, I don't know if he deserved to be yelled at or not…" Her mother said softly. "Though I think you should ask yourself something… is your anger worth hurting your friendship over?"

Abby glanced over at her, giving her a momentary stare before looking down at her bowl of ice-cream again. She reached for the spoon, but her mom snatched it away with a wry smile. "You have school tomorrow young lady, and you've had more than enough sugar. You need to go get ready for bed, now. If you need to talk tomorrow, I'll be right here."

"Fiiine, sheesh…" Abby grumped and turned off the TV before turning to make her way upstairs to her bedroom.

She threw her closet open and pulled out her bathrobe along with a blue towel. She turned to leave the room, but she stopped when she felt the towel rub against something sticking out of the pocket of her jeans. "Hmm…?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out the invitation Paige had given her earlier, a little rumpled from being trapped in her pocket for most of the day, but still clearly legible and very nice-looking.

She narrowed her eyes at the invitation, but didn't throw it out. Instead she dropped it on the nightstand beside her bed and walked out into the hallway, heading into the bathroom and closing the door behind her. Her robe dropped onto the toilet with the towel getting hung on the bar beside the shower before she turned on the water, watching it come down for a few moments and making sure it hit the right temperature before pulling the ponytail out of her hair, letting the fiery red strands flow around her body like a robe and moving to strip off her day clothes.

The water was warm and comfortable when she stepped in, taking a deep breath and trying to forget the pain of the day, though the fresh bandages she'd wrapped around her right arm when she got home reminded her of what had gone wrong. Still, she shut that out of her mind and set about washing herself up for the night, taking ten minutes to clean her body and thirty minutes along with half a bottle of shampoo to wash her hair. Her mom often begged her to cut it, but she liked it like this. It was like having a built-in security blanket.

She blinked when she felt something tickle her toes, then looked down to see a cockroach flailing against her foot as the water washed past, threatening to wash the insect toward the drain. "Hey! How did you get in here, little guy?" Abby knelt down to sweep the little thing into her palm and turn her back to the showerhead, shielding it with her body. The cockroach was still flailing upside down in her palm. "I thought we had the house roach-proofed… you guys sure are clever." She chuckled and slid out of the shower, making her way to the heavily tinted window high up on the wall.

She put her finger on the roach's legs, letting it cling to her flesh before she reached up to open the window with her free hand, pushing the roach against the windowsill with the other. "Now get outta here. Shoo, shoo." She shook her finger until finally she felt the roach let go and vanish from sight. The window snapped shut when she let go and turned to walk back to the shower to finish rinsing out her hair.

A while later she had her hair wrapped expertly up around her head in the towel she'd brought for just this purpose, and was wearing the thick blue bathrobe around her body as she left, heading back to her bedroom. A nice warm shower always made her feel relaxed, so she was humming lightly to herself as she locked her door and padded across the room to her bed, flopping face-down on it with a grunt. One of her eyes opened a moment later, and she found herself face-to-face with another insect, this time a praying mantis.

"Whoa… a Praying Mantis… you're not supposed to be anywhere near here." Abby sat up and looked down at the creature, which seemed to be just staring up at her with its shining, bright yellow eyes. "Did you get out of someone's house?" She reached down to gently sweep the insect into her palm, but she didn't even touch it before it leapt from the pillow, flying right past her head.

"Hey!" Abby whirled to find it, then gasped and leapt to her feet off the bed when she saw her entire floor covered in bugs of varying kinds and sizes. They stood unnaturally silent, like an insect army watching for her to make one wrong move. Were these the same bugs from the plant? Abby's eyes narrowed and her gaze darted around the room quickly, but she didn't see their leader anywhere. Her eyes widened however when she heard a thud from the next room over. "Ty!"

She moved to run for her door, but the insects between her and it suddenly exploded into thunderous noise, a horrendous buzzing and screeching that made her back off in surprise. When she'd backed toward the bed again, the noise died down, and the bugs once again stood as silent guardians, thousands of eyes all trained on her. Abby growled and took one more step toward the door, but once again the bugs started to buzz.

"Yeah buzz, buzz, buzz off!" Abby grabbed the edge of the blanket on her bed and yanked it forward, sending it fluttering to the floor right on top of the insect army. They buzzed even louder, furiously seeking the edges of the blanket, but Abby had already leapt over it and thrown the door open by the time they started to emerge. She slammed the door behind her and ripped the wet towel off of her head to shove it into the crack underneath the door, right before the bugs began to slam against the solid wood like a hundred tiny needles trying to break through.

Her hair now hanging around her body like a red cloak, Abby rushed to the next door and slammed into it with all her force, throwing it open just in time to see Ty hit the ground with a strangled moan, his arm twitching. She could see bitemarks in his shoulder, somewhat shallow, but deep enough to deliver the yellowish venom that was also dripping from the small holes. The creature from before stood up straight and looked over at her, its teeth dripping with blood and venom.

"Step away from the little brother." Abby demanded as she stepped inside. "Who are you? What do you want?"

The creature growled and slowly knelt down, one of its clawed hands closing around Ty's throat as he lay paralyzed in its grasp. "H-hey! Don't hurt him! I'm warning you!"

Without warning one of the creature's claws lashed out, grabbing the lamp from the nightstand and hurling it at her head. Abby raised her arm in time to block it, but the glass base shattered against her arm, pelting her with glass shards and driving her back into the hallway, where she slammed into the opposite wall and sank to the floor in surprise. Trying to ignore the pain, she lowered her arms and scrambled to her feet, but by the time she regained her footing Ty's room was already empty, with his open window the only indication that anything had happened.

Panting in surprise and horror, Abby turned back to her room, where the buzzing from the insects had disappeared. She ran back to it and rushed inside to find it empty… except for a single spot of movement under the blanket lying on the floor. Abby slowly crept to the blanket, then with lightning fast movements ripped the blanket off the floor and slammed her palm down against the carpet. She heard a muffled scream under her hand, but she didn't press down, instead curling her fingers in to grip the tiny figure and lift it off the floor.

"Pleeeaaaase don't hurt me! I promise, I won't do anything ever ever again! They told me to! I don't wanna get hurt pleeeeaaaaase!" The tiny insect blubbered and wailed in her fist like a two-year-old. It looked like a pillbug, though those weren't typically found in this area either.

"So you can talk." Abby raised her eyebrow with a dark glare. "Good, if you can talk, you can answer questions." The pillbug squeaked in horror, but Abby paid it no mind, already turning to get dressed. There was no sleeping with her brother missing, she wouldn't rest until he was in that room right next to hers.

***

"Ugh…" Ty hit the ground hard, though he could still barely feel anything in his limbs. He narrowed his eyes, trying to squint into the darkness of the cavern into which he'd been brought. The floor was slick with moisture, and the sound of buzzing wings could be heard all around his head. He looked up enough to see the creature walk over him, approaching what looked like a throne outlined in the darkness by the reflection of the moon on the slick rocks behind it.

"I brought the weaker one, Your Highness." The insect spoke in a stunningly calm voice and knelt down on one knee, bowing its head in reverence. "As you instructed."

"Excellent work, my child." A familiar, crackling voice spoke from the throne as a gnarled figure rose and stepped into the pale moonlight, grinning down at him with a malicious, thoughtful grin.

"Insectiva…" Ty grunted through the paralyzing venom, struggling to regain control of his limbs. "You did do this… h-how…" His eyes shot towards the creature beside her.

"How did I create such a perfect being, you ask?" Insectiva chuckled and rested one hand gently on the creature's shoulder. "I didn't… ironically, you humans were kind enough to create the next step in Earth's evolution. Insects with the strength and mental capability of humans… you humans unlocked the doors that held back the insect race forever, and it is we who will ensure that the human race adheres to this evolution… by turning all of the human race into these hybrids! Imagine it… a planet full of the perfect insects created by man! It's beautiful!"

"It's impossible…" Ty grunted. "A living thing can't be changed like that once it's already been developed… unless it was pre-designed to. You can't transform humanity…"

"Those who can't transform, I suppose, will just have to make way for the new master race." Insectiva grinned. "A pity but… progress takes no prisoners, as they say."

"You won't get away with this…" Ty grunted.

"And who will stop me? Your dear sister?" Insectiva grinned. "She might, if she were still around the next time we put our plans into action… but the problem with that theory is that it depends on her survival."

Ty struggled to move, to do anything, but the venom kept his muscles flaccid, his body flat and helpless on the ground. There was nothing he could do to help Abby… or himself.


	4. Walking into the Web

Chapter 04: Walking Into the Web

"Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasedon'thurtme!" A shrill voice echoed painfully against the solid steel walls of the Gag Lab. It was hard to believe they were coming from a tiny pillbug inside a jar, who was screaming through one of the tiny air holes they had poked for it. "I promise I'll be a good boy! I'll be a very good boy! Pleeeeeeehhheeheheheheeeeaaaase!" The bug sank to its knees dramatically and put two of its left legs to its head. "Oh why does it have to end like this? Why must the good ones always die so young!? WHYYYYYYYYYY!?"

Lab Rat grunted and put his hands over his ears. "Yep, it can definitely talk."

"I just wish I could make it stop." Abby grunted when the pillbug let loose another shrill wail. "Ugh, have your scans found anything unusual about it yet?"

"They're almost finished." Lab Rat kicked his desk chair away from the bug's table, sending it rolling towards the powerful supercomputer that sat against the wall, with massive signs and lettering taking up its screen space. Abby followed him to lean down over his shoulder, watching the screen interestedly. They watched the screen in silence for a few moments before Lab Rat finally spoke. "Listen, Abby, I'm sorry I didn't have your back… I should have."

"Yeah, you should." Abby looked down at him.

"Yeah, well… I just wanted you to know that." Lab Rat grumbled. Perhaps sensing his discomfort, his furry friend Hermes leapt up from the floor to land in front of him on the desk, where it was greeted with a warm smile and a pat on the head. Abby sighed and reached up to rub the back of her neck, but the computer flashed before she could say anything.

"The scan is done." Lab Rat ran his fingers over the keyboard with the ease of long practice. "The blood work and genetic analysis came back clean, but the tissue sample I got from its carapace is showing trace amounts of… radiation?" He raised his eyebrow.

"As in nuclear radiation!?" Abby gasped. "Isn't that stuff deadly?"

"In large enough amounts and over long-term exposure, yeah, but this is such a small amount I doubt it would take effect on us even if we hung around it our entire lives. It's just curious that it's there at all…" Lab Rat's fingers tapped away at the keyboard again. "There's something else on the carapace though… it looks like a synthetic pheromone."

"How can you tell it's synthetic?"

"Because it's not from any one species of insect. It's a blend of pheromones from ants, bees, anything else that typically controls a large group." Lab Rat looked up at her over his shoulder as she stood up straight, looking thoughtfully down at the desk. "I'm not sure about your monster or the talking bug, but this pheromone is definitely Insectiva's handiwork."

"Don't you call Creepie a monster!" The bug shrieked angrily from the glass jar and rammed the side, nearly tipping it over. Abby and Lab Rat turned back to look at it and it instantly calmed down again, turning into a sniffling mess on the bottom of the jar once again. "She's not a monster! She's not! Creepie's great!"

Abby pushed away from the desk to approach the jar, leaning heavily on the edge of the desk with both arms. "Ready to talk to us? Who is 'Creepie'?"

"The girl you've been fighting, with the wings! She's not evil, she's not a monster!" The bug complained. "That woman… the skinny woman with the purple hair, she's controlling Creepie somehow, I know she is! Creepie would never try to hurt anyone, she LOVES humans, some of her best friends are human!"

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Abby glanced at Lab Rat as he moved up beside her.

"This pheromone is one of the strongest I've ever come across, way stronger than anything you'll find in nature. If this is true, Insectiva probably needed one that strong to control a creature like this." He shook his head. "It makes sense from a logical standpoint, but that still doesn't tell us where this thing… where 'Creepie'… came from."

"Or more importantly, where she is now." Abby growled.

"I can take you to her!" The pillbug once again drew their attention to the glass jar. "If you promise to help Creepie, and the rest of my family, I'll take you to her. I don't like that purple lady…"

Abby exchanged another long glance with Lab Rat. "He's our only lead." Abby nodded.

"You're going after Insectiva now? Alone? With this 'Creepie' creature there too?" Lab Rat asked.

"Ty needs help, and I am not making him wait any longer." Abby plucked the jar off of the table and popped it open before Lab Rat could complain anymore. "You've got yourself a deal, bug. Take me to Insectiva, I'll take care of the rest."

"WHOOOO!" The bug curled into a little brown ball and bounced out of the jar, rebounding off of her arm twice before it unrolled to land on her shoulder. "And my name is Paulie!"

"The Director is going to be furious." Lab Rat warned one last time.

"Tell him I'm testing the GRS1's new functions. I'm sure I can count on you for a little cover." Abby raised her eyebrow for a moment, then turned to head into the docking bay. She ignored Lab Rat's soft sigh, too focused on finding her brother now.

"WOWEEEEEEEEE!" Paulie's scream of excitement could be heard loud and clear over the roar of the GRS1's engines as they pierced the puffy white cumulus clouds that hang over the city. "Look at those birds! Wow!" Paulie shrieked in excitement. "We're higher than the birds! Yeah, try to get me now you feathered menaces! Hahaha!"

"Can we focus?" Abby snapped. "My brother is not going to find himself. Please, guide me to him so I can save him, and Creepie."

"Oh, right right…" Paulie was suddenly all business as he bounced from the side to the front windshield, pressing his face up against the glass to get a good look at the mountain below. "Down there! That cave right there!"

Instantly the GRS1 spun in the air, diving toward the ground until Abby finally pulled it back, slamming on the thrusters to keep from plunging into the mountain. The ship touched down and the windshield opened up, allowing Abby to leap to the rocks below. Paulie landed on her shoulder a moment later. Abby turned back to the ship and reached into her belt, taking out a small device. A single button press later, the GRS1 began to shift, turning the same dull red color as the surrounding mountain, and soon looking no different from one of the millions of boulders lying around.

"Sometimes I'm glad Lab Rat reads so many comic books. They're good inspiration for an inventor." Abby quipped.

"That is the coolest thing I have ever seen… I want one!" Paulie exclaimed.

"Of course, you can have one when you grow opposable thumbs." Abby smirked teasingly.

"Awwwwww…" Paulie groaned and kicked at her shoulder in disappointment.

Shaking her head, Abby turned to scale up the side of the mountain toward the cave they had spotted from the air. Her Slime Suit bent and stretched easily with her body, making the tricky positioning it took to climb the uneven surface easier than it would otherwise be. At the top she hurried up to the side of the cave, pressing her back against it and leaning forward to peer inside. She couldn't see anything, but she wasn't going to give up. She took her flashlight out of her belt and pressed on.

The powerful light from her tiny flashlight flitted back and forth from wall to wall, keeping an eye out for anything that might jump out at her, but nothing seemed amiss. It seemed like a strangely normal cave, she didn't even hear any animals down here.

"But… we should hear them by now." Paulie's tiny head jerked back and forth from Abby's shoulder. "Just a little farther in, they've gotta be there."

"Shush! We're sneaking right now!" Abby hissed through gritted teeth. The pillbug drew one leg over his lips as if zipping them, with a quick nod.

Abby crept to the end of the tunnel. The sound of water dripping into a pool could be heard from up ahead, the soft sound greatly magnified in the empty rock tunnels. She whirled into the room and flung the light around in front of her, but aside from the pool of water nearby, she didn't see anything other than rocks and shadows. She didn't even hear any skittering or signs of alarm… the cavern was completely motionless except for-

"Ty!" Abby shouted when the light swept over her brother's unconscious form in front of the pool. He was still in his pajamas, which were dirty and fouled by the cavern floor. Abby raced across the cavern to skid to her knees by his side, reaching down to turn him to face her. "Ty, wake up! Can you hear me?" She shook him as gently as she could, desperate to get a response from him.

"Oogh…" Ty groaned and opened his eyes slightly. "Abby… did you stop them?"

"No, I was going to but… they're not here." Abby shrugged. "Man you have no idea how glad I am that you're okay."

"They're going to attack the water supply again…" Ty groaned and sat up, shaking in Abby's arms. "Oh man… that thing has some powerful venom. I haven't been able to move for hours…"

"Take it easy, you're safe now." Abby reassured him as she reached into her pocket for her communicator. When she popped it open, however, the screen only displayed static. "It's not working."

"Phones don't work in mountains, the signal can't get out. We should get outside and see if that helps." Ty suggested.

"Right, of course." Abby moved to hook Ty's arm around her shoulders and lift him from the ground. This displaced Paulie, who leapt on top of Abby's head instead.

"But what about Creepie!? What about my family!?" Paulie complained.

"Did… that bug just talk?" Ty asked warily.

"I'll explain later, and Creepie isn't here. We have to get out of here to find her." Abby turned to head back the way she came, but stopped dead in her tracks the second her flashlight moved across the cavern entrance. It was covered by thick, delicate strands of silk woven into a spider's web, and stuck to dozens of anchor points around the door.

"Was that there when you came in?" Ty asked.

"No… it wasn't…" Abby gulped and slowly started moving her flashlight across the floor again. In a few moments her light shined on a massive, hairy leg, framed by a bulbous thorax that dangled from an even bigger torso. The light slowly moved up the legs to the face higher than Abby was tall, where several pairs of tiny eyes were trained on them with unusual focus. The venom in its jaws could already be seen dripping on the rocks below, though it could just as easily have been saliva.

"Aunt Rose!" Paulie leapt onto Abby's flashlight, spreading his legs out wide. "It's me! Paulie! You wouldn't hurt me!"

The spider's return roar was so strong it nearly deafened the trio, and its venom flew from its mandibles with enough force to cover Abby's flashlight and the tiny pillbug on top of it.

Abby blinked, then screamed and scrambled backwards as the spider charged them. Instinctively her hand moved from around Ty's shoulders to reach into her backpack for her Goop Shooter… only to find its usual space empty, as her weapon still lay in pieces where she had left it at the water treatment plant. "Oh… crap."

"Watch out!" Ty tackled her to the side, sending them both falling out of the way right before the mandibles could close around them. "Abby, the water! A spider this big can't possible swim!"

"Right!" Abby's feet scraped against the moist rocks as she scrambled to her feet, grabbing her brother and hauling him along as she took off towards the pool, leaving the flashlight where it lay. The beam of light was shining towards them, though, and she could see the looming black shadow of the massive spider looking ever larger against the wall on the other side of the pool. She swore she felts one of the stiff hairs on its leg touch her back right before the two siblings ran right out over the pool without stopping, flying into the water still holding onto one-another.

They surfaced a few moments later, shivering. "Holy moly that's cold…" Ty's teeth chattered.

"But we're safe… you were right." Abby looked up at the edge of the pool, where the spider was roaring in anger, but refusing to approach any closer to the water.

"I can't believe Aunt Rose attacked me…" Paulie collapsed on the top of Abby's now-wet head. "I don't like this at all! I wanna see my mooooommmyyyyyy!" He sobbed ferociously against her hair.

"Aww, don't cry Paulie, we'll get out of here somehow…" Abby looked down at the water, noticing the gentle waves lapping up against the rocks. "Wait… the water's moving. The lake must be connected to something else, the water has to be coming in from outside. We can get out!" Abby reached into her backpack and pulled out a small tube with a plastic mouthpiece on it.

"Yeah, that's great Abby, but I don't have my Slime Suit or any of my equipment. Only YOU do." Ty reminded her. "Who knows how long the tunnel is?" The two Archer kids stared at each other for several long moments before finally Ty forced a smile. "We can't afford to waste any time, Insectiva could be polluting the town's water supply with her mutagen as we speak. She plans to turn every human in the world into one of those insect-things."

"What!?" Abby's eyes widened. "We can't let her get away with that!"

"Which is why you need to get out of here, Abby. Warn Lab Rat and the Director, stop Insectiva."

"But… I can't leave you here, Ty." Abby stared at him worriedly. "I can't leave you here with that thing."

"You can come back for me, with better weapons. But we can't both just stay here trying to think of a way out when you have a way out, and you can stop Insectiva." Ty forced another smile, though his teeth were chattering from the cold water. "I have enough light and enough water to keep the killer spider at a stalemate for a little while. I'll be here when you come back…" He trailed off with a gulp, though his expression was firm.

Abby swam up to him and wrapped him in a tight hug, pulling his face into her shoulder. "I'll come back for you Ty… don't you even start to doubt that."

"Not for an instant." She felt his arms wrap briefly around her as well, then he let her go, letting her float to the center of the pool.

Abby looked up. "If you're coming, Paulie, only one place you can ride with oxygen. Just stay out of the windpipe."

"We're leaving!? Oh, okay!" Paulie jumped up along with his spirits.

Abby stuck out her tongue dutifully, letting the pillbug land on it before she pulled it back into her mouth. She waited a few moments for the bug to move to a more secure spot between her teeth and her cheek. It was a good thing she had no gag reflex, feeling something crawling around on her tongue was one of the strangest sensations she'd ever had. After one last glance and a quick smile at her brother, Abby stuck the breathing tube into her mouth and dove under the water, letting the low light from her Slime Suit's visor light the way.

The deep underwater currents ripped at her body, which was already shivering from the sheer cold. The small tube sucked the oxygen from the water just like a fish's gills, allowing her to breathe as she made her way down to the bottom of the lake. She swam against the increasingly forceful current, until she found the tunnel that was letting the water in. After a moment's preparation, she hauled herself forward along the wall, and kicked her way down the tunnel.

It seemed to stretch forever to muscles that were numb from cold and aching from continuous strain, but she pushed on. If she gave up, she would be pushed right back to the lake, where Ty was waiting for her to return with help, and in all likelihood she would never regain enough strength to try again. She had to do it now, or it was the end of her brother.

That thought spurred her on until finally she noticed the light in her visor growing brighter. She approached the end of the tunnel at last, pulling herself out against the current and looking up into the fiery orange light of dawn. She swam quickly to the surface, grabbing the edge of the water and hauling her torso onto the hard rocks. She shivered as the wind swept over her body, spitting out the oxygen tube, along with her passenger.

"Hey!" Paulie exclaimed as he bounced along the ground. "Be careful!"

"S-sorry…" Abby hauled the rest of her body out of the water and climbed to her feet, looking out over the town that lay spread out before her. She didn't move however, instead looking back towards the mountain inside which Ty was trapped. She knew she had to save the city… but saving the city wouldn't mean anything to her if she lost her brother. What to do…

TOMORROW - Chapter 05: A New Race Begins


	5. A New Race Begins

Chapter 05: A New Race Begins

"You know, I'm not usually good at talking with girls." Ty quipped, sitting on the far edge of the lake, hugging his knees to his chest. The massive spider was still standing on the other side of the water, watching him with its beady eyes. It had tried to circle after him the first few times he got out of the water, but it must have finally realized escape was too easy for him. So now it just glared like an annoyed parent would regard a hyper child. "But you're not so bad. Do you have any hobbies?"

Aunt Rose roared her anger, spittle and venom flying into the lake. "Yeah, that's about what I thought." Ty sighed to himself. It could be a long time before Abby returned, he realized. He needed something to keep his mind occupied, but he couldn't afford to take his eyes off of the spider. "Man, what I wouldn't give for a Game Boy right now…"

He blinked in confusion a moment later when he heard a strange rumbling sound inside the cave. He could also feel vibrations running through the floor… was the entire cave fixing to cave in? No, it was too shallow, he realized… in fact, it felt like something was approaching.

His head jerked toward the entrance as a powerful spotlight shone through the spider-web moments before a familiar green cone ploughed into the web slowly. Spider silk was extremely strong, but it could be broken with enough force, such as the force generated by the tank treads that carried the GRS1 straight through the web and into the cavern.

"Abby!" Ty leapt to his feet with a grin. Aunt Rose whirled with another furious roar, and charged the tank, its legs flashing over the ground.

"Yeah, roar at this." Abby's voice grumbled form the megaphone on front of the GRS1 as the massive Goop Cannon perched below the cockpit turned to point straight at the spider. It didn't even see the goop coming before it was pinned to the far wall by a wad of Goop large enough to cover every inch of its body.

"Yes!" Ty raced around the lake as the cockpit opened. His sister leapt out onto the ground to meet him in a massive hug. "Wow, you sure know how to make an entrance!"

"Hah, I do don't I?" Abby smiled proudly. "But we don't have time for congratulations or a reunion, Insectiva is still out there somewhere. Who knows when she'll try again to put her plan to action?"

"Right." Ty nodded and pulled away from her. "Let's hurry up and get out of here. We can't waste any more time…" So the Archer siblings climbed up into the cockpit of the GRS1, and the vehicle turned to rumble back out of the cave.

***

The burning orange sun was peeking over the Western horizon as the car's powerful headlight shown on the sides of the highway, the engine roaring through the growing light as they reached speeds way higher than they should have been. There was nobody out here this far into the countryside anyway, and to say they were in a hurry was a dramatic understatement. They didn't know what was happening to Creepie or why she would run around attacking water treatment plants, and if they didn't hurry they knew they could very well be too late.

Maria Suarez lifted a mug of coffee off of the cup holder with one free hand to take a sip, reveling in the only thing that had kept her awake throughout the extremely long drive. They could have flown, she supposed, but it probably would have taken longer to book an available flight, and they would've had to drive from the airport anyway, the closest of which was several towns over. Besides, she thought to herself as she glanced at the boy snoozing in the passenger's seat, Skipper didn't like flying very much.

The car rumbled up the side of a hill, and at the peak a city spread out below illuminated in the fiery orange light of dawn. It wasn't too small, but it wasn't a massive city either. Just big enough really to qualify as a city. This was where Creepie had been spotted, and where they would finally find some answers. She pressed her foot just a little harder on the gas, sending them roaring down the side of the hill.

"Mmh…?" Skipper groaned at the increased roar of the engine and opened his eyes. "What's goin' on?"

"We're here." Maria told him with a slight smile. "I suspect we'll have Creepie tracked down by tonight."

Skipper smiled as he sat up and stretched with a tired yawn. "I can't believe it's been so long… I can't wait to see her again."

"Me neither, Skipper…" Maria spoke softly. He didn't seem to realize that the Creepie they found here might not be the one they had lost over two months ago. She could have changed so much in that time. "Me neither…"

She pulled them up to a gas station near the edge of town, climbing out of the car. "Stay here, I'll get you something to drink." Maria ordered. Skipper nodded and leaned back in his seat, so Maria turned to head into the gas station, making her way up to the counter, where the clerk was sitting in an uncomfortable looking chair reading a magazine. "Hey."

"Hey." The man glanced up. "Don't know you."

"Just got here, might be one reason for that." Maria smiled amicably. "I'm still friendly, though."

"Nice to see a friendly someone then." The clerk smiled back. "Seems like I haven't seen a soul in here all morning, and I've been here since three A.M."

"This place must not have much of a night life." Maria noted.

"True, but it's been strangely quiet, even for this place. I'd just keep my eyes peeled if I were you." The man suggested.

"Duly noted… I'll make sure to keep my eyes open while my friend enjoys a delicious bottled water from your fine establishment." Maria nodded. The man shook his head with a chuckle and turned to get her bottle. Maria glanced back at the car through the front window worriedly. Something was strange in this city, and Creepie was in here somewhere…

Suddenly her stomach felt like it was twisting into knots. Something bad was happening…

***

The GRS1 flew over the city, with Abby clutching the controls while Ty relaxed in the seat beside her, breathing heavily. Paulie once again had his face pressed against the window, gawking in wonder at the ground far, far below. "This must be what we look like to you humans." He quipped, then cocked his head to one side curiously. "Hey, I just noticed somethin', where ARE all the humans? Don't you guys usually run around a lot?"

"What do you mean? They're right-" Ty leaned over to look out the window. "Huh…? He's right. The streets are empty."

"What!?" Abby leaned over to look, and discovered that they were right. Though cars still lined the streets there was nobody rushing around as there typically was. There weren't even any kids on skateboards, it looked like everybody in the city had simply vanished without a trace. "I don't like the look of this…" Abby reached forward to tape her dashboard, activating the comlink. "Lab Rat, we have a weird situation up here."

Ty looked at the white static that blared from the dashboard. "Lab Rat?" He tapped the dashboard with his fingers, pressing a few quick buttons, but the signal didn't improve any. "Weird, he's never ignored us before."

"He's never been unable to pick up our signal before either…" Abby narrowed her eyes. "I don't like this, Ty…" She and Ty let out surprised shrieks when something suddenly slammed into the window, though their wails were easily drowned out by Paulie's, which sounded like a whistle stuck in a bird's throat.

They stared up at the windshield, through which they could see the creature from the water treatment plant, Creepie Creature, clinging to the glass, her wings buzzing against her back to keep her balance.

"Creepie!" Paulie exclaimed. "Please tell me you're better now!"

"Somehow I don't think so…" Abby narrowed her eyes at the half-blank, half-vicious expression on Creepie's face. It didn't look like she was thinking… it was definitely the work of the pheromones Lab Rat had found on Paulie's carapace.

"At least she can't hurt the GRS1, no matter how strong she is." Ty suggested with a smile. It was then that a great shadow loomed over the ship, blanketing them in darkness. Abby, Ty, and Paulie slowly turned their gazes upward, where they saw so many forms flying in the sky above them that they looked like a giant, buzzing cloud. All of the forms were human-sized, and shaped like Creepie with body-covering hair and gossamer wings, but their faces were those of everyone they knew. They even recognized Paige and their parents among the crowd.

"It actually worked…" Ty gaped in astonishment.

"And we're too late to stop it…" Abby gulped. No sooner did this realization dawn on them than the massive swarm turned toward them as one, the vibration of their beating wings alone enough to make the GRS1 shudder. "We're getting out of here!" Abby threw the accelerator forward, sending the GRS1 rocketing across the sky at full speed with flames erupting from the back. Creepie slammed into the windshield from the sudden force, but didn't let go, her claws scraping across the glass as her lip curled into a snarl.

Other creatures slammed into the sides of the GRS1 with deafening clangs, but Abby jerked the wheel to the side, sending them into a fast barrel roll that sent the creatures flying off, along with sending Paulie hurtling around the cockpit like he was caught in a washing machine. The ship leveled off again, jerking to one side in the hopes of jarring Creepie herself loose, but somehow her grip remained solid, as if acting as a beacon for the others to follow.

"Get off, damnit!" Abby whirled the GRS1 around, trying to shake Creepie loose, but nothing would dislodge her, and more and more creatures were slamming into the hull, battering them from side to side. They had no hope of breaking through the metal, but that didn't stop them from trying.

The ship whirled through the city streets with the swarm following like a living cloud. Creepie's fist rose from the windshield and slammed into it with a deafening crunch, sending cracks racing through the thick glass. Abby jerked the controls off to the left, sending the ship careening down an adjacent street, but it couldn't take the turn fast enough to avoid slamming its side into one of the nearby buildings.

"Guugh! Careful, Abby!" Ty cringed at the sound of metal screeching across the brick building for a moment. Creepie was thrown off-balance toward the wall, so Abby jerked the controls back the other way, sending the GRS1 into a rough spin. Creepie reached for the windshield again, but the ship was too fast, its speed throwing her clear off out into the open air.

"Yes! We did it!" Abby grinned. She didn't have any more time to celebrate, however. The spin cost them some speed, and within seconds the rest of the swarm was on them, the sound of claws ripping across the solid metal exterior of the ship deafening to those trapped inside. The two Grossologists gasped when the console in front of them began to shoot sparks into the cockpit.

"No! No!" Abby reached through the sparks to the controls, picking up some speed, but it was a struggle to keep the ship moving straight. The lights around them flickered off and on as they flew full speed down the street. Finally the sound of the swarm faded into the distance behind them, but they weren't out of the woods yet.

"We've taken too much damage!" Ty exclaimed in a panic. "We've got to land somewhere before-" he stopped short when suddenly, with an almost pathetic whimper, the control panel in front of them went black with a puff of smoke floating up into the air. The two of them stared at the now dark control panels for a long moment, then exchanged a quick glance as the ship slowly began to arc downward.

"Even eject isn't working!" Abby pounded her fist on the console, feeling the fear rising up in her throat.

"Abby!" Ty grabbed onto Abby.

"Ty!" Abby clung to him as well, burying her face in his shoulder.

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIEEEEEE!" Paulie screamed.

***

"It's so quiet…" Skipper mumbled in awed silence as Maria's car rumbled through the seemingly deserted city. There was no disorder or chaos, the cars were neatly parked along the sides of the streets and the houses remained locked up as if their owners had simply stepped out for a bit, but there was nothing and nobody wandering the streets. It was a chilling sight that sent shivers up Skipper's spine. "Where do you think Creepie is?"

"I don't know." Maria brought the car to a stop in the middle of the road and leaned back in her seat, looking back and forth between the cars. "Do you hear something…?"

"It sounds like…" Skipper's heart skipped a beat when they both heard a monumental crash from nearby. It sounded like a bomb going off, but it didn't stop.

Something ploughed straight through the building right beside their car like a wrecking ball in a cloud of bricks and debris. Some sort of green ship slammed into the street hard enough to skip off of it like a stone across water, the windshield shattering from the force of the impact and the front of the ship collapsing in on itself. The bounce sent it arcing into the air over the car, the shattered glass raining down on them, along with two surprisingly heavy objects that slipped out of the cockpit and slammed into the hood of the car before bouncing limply to the street beyond in a tangled heap. Skipper couldn't believe it, but it looked like a pair of kids…

The ship hit the ground nearby with another booming crash, but they were already focused on this new problem. "Oh my God… Skipper, come on!" Maria quickly threw her car door open and rushed around to kneel beside the kids. By the time Skipper joined her she had the girl with the long red ponytail bent upward slightly, her fingers pressed against her throat. The girl was unconscious and pale, and her body was marked all over with cuts of varying depth, but…

"She's alive." Maria gently set her on the ground and moved to the boy in the pajamas, checking him similarly. "I think they'll both be okay."

"Maria! Skipper!" A familiar voice shouted from behind them.

"Paulie!?" Skipper gasped and whirled around. "Paulie! What are you doing here? What's going on? Where's Creepie?"

"She's… not herself…" Paulie looked past Skipper's head. Slowly Skipper turned to look, his eyes widening when he saw the swarm of Creepie-like creatures coming straight towards them en-mass.

"Oh my God…" Maria's eyes widened. "Skipper, get that boy in the car, now!" She leapt to her feet and picked the girl up to rush her into the back seat of the car.

Skipper followed suit, dragging the boy into the back seat before leaping into the passenger's seat himself, pausing only a moment to let Paulie leap in with them.

Maria slammed the pedal to the floor, sending the car screeching off down the street. The creatures didn't follow, however. Instead they were converging around the crashed ship like a swarm of moths on a light bulb, looking eager to find something in the wreckage… something it seemed they wouldn't find.

"They were after the kids." Maria glanced in the rear view mirror to look at them, still unconscious in the back seat. "They'll be looking for them, then…"

"Then… we should go somewhere they can't find them, right?" Skipper asked.

"Right. We'll take them home… they can rest there, and we can find out what the Hell is going on." Maria's foot didn't leave the gas pedal, even long after they had left the city limits. Skipper had to take one last look back. Where was Creepie in all this? Was she really part of that horrible swarm…? What happened to her?

TOMORROW - Chapter 6: The Past and the Future


	6. The Past and the Future

Chapter 06: The Past and the Future

"Mmhhhh…" Abby's eyes slowly began to open, half-expecting to see her mother standing over her bed with a look of disapproval on her face. Instead she found herself staring up at a bare ceiling in a completely unfamiliar room. She moved her hand up to her forehead, finding her joints a bit stiff; she even heard it crack disgustingly as she moved it. On her arm were several bandages, the highest of which ended at what she now realized was a soft blue nightgown that covered her body neck to toe underneath a set of thick comforters.

She moved to sit up, but grunted and winced in pain as she bent her stomach. She doubled over on the bed with a louder groan, hunched over and waiting for the pain to subside. It finally began to, but not before a pair of footsteps plodded up to the bedroom door.

"Hey! Be careful!" The footsteps rushed up beside her to grab her shoulders and push her back. The pain subsided somewhat as Abby laid back down, looking up now into the gaze of a blue-eyed redhead with a cheery-looking face and a ponytail bobbing behind her head. "Maria said your stomach was hurt pretty badly, you should rest."

"Thanks for the tip…" Abby groaned with a confused look on her face. "Who's Maria… who are you… where am I?"

"Um, Maria found you in the street after you got hurt, I'm Chris-Alice, and this is Middlington!" Chris-Alice threw her arms up into the air, as if introducing the town to her. "I'm really just here because Maria asked me to help take care of you. You've been out cold for two days you know."

"Two days?" Abby gasped. "Wh-what about my brother? What about Ty, is he okay?"

"The boy who was with you? He's fine! Skipper's with him in the next room." Chris-Alice assured her with a bright smile. "You're both fine. Maria's a doctor, so you know you're in good hands." Abby sighed and relaxed a little, breathing deeply under the blankets.

"Thanks…" Abby finally returned her smile. "I'm Abby, by the way."

"Nice to meet you!" Chris-Alice grinned. "Do you want something to eat? You haven't eaten in a long time." Abby didn't even have to answer, the very mention of food made her stomach grumble loud enough to be heard from beneath the thick blankets. Chris-Alice giggled. "I'll just go fix you something, you wait right here and get better, okay?" Without waiting for a response Chris-Alice swept out of the room like a hurricane, leaving Abby lying alone on the thick king-sized bed.

"Yeah, waiting here seems really productive." Abby grumbled to herself before slowly sitting up again. She grunted when she once again put pressure on her bandaged stomach, but with more care the pain was dulled enough to deal with as she swung her legs off the bed and climbed to her feet. She hobbled toward the door and out into the hallway, holding her stomach with both arms. The sound of someone talking from a television could be heard from the right, so she moved down that way, leaning against the wall to take some pressure off her stomach.

She slipped up to the edge of what was obviously the living room, where she saw the back of a head of brown hair sitting on a comfortable sofa, watching the news on TV.

The news anchor shuffled some papers in front of her, speaking in a firm voice. "Despite law-enforcement's best efforts to track down the missing persons, no leads have yet been found, and two more towns near the first have been struck hard, the towns of Pleasant Hills and Endsville. The population of both towns have almost completely vanished, and those who remain claim to have no idea where the missing citizens have disappeared to. More on this story as it comes to us."

"Insectiva's still moving…" Abby grumbled darkly. "I can't believe she's getting away with this."

"Ah, you're awake." The woman on the couch looked back at her. "It's good to see you up and about."

"Thanks… and thanks for the rescue." Abby told her gratefully. "I guess we owe you our lives."

"Hey, it's what doctors do." The woman smiled back at her warmly and patted the sofa cushion beside her. "Come, sit. I think we should compare notes." Abby nodded and made her way to the offered cushion, carefully falling back onto it and leaning back to take the pressure off her spine. "First, I think introductions are in order. I am Dr. Maria Suarez."

"Abby Archer…" Abby replied. "The boy in the back is my brother, Ty."

"Abby, nice to meet you." Maria nodded, then leaned forward, crossing her legs on the couch cushion and resting her elbows on her knees. "Is there anything important you think I should know about what's happening now? I just want to help you, and stop whatever's happening."

Abby glanced down at the floor, then up at Maria. She'd gotten used to keeping Grossology affairs secret between just herself, Lab Rat, and the Director… but from here she couldn't contact Lab Rat or the Director, and things were just getting worse. She really had nothing to lose. Besides, this woman saved her life… she had to trust her.

"The woman who's causing this is named Cara Chitin…" Abby began. "She wanted to become a renounced entomologist, but after studying the bugs for so long, and seeing how humans treated them, she decided to side with them… she became Insectiva. She thinks that bugs are the rightful rulers of the planet, and wants to wipe out the human race so they can rise to power."

"Under her command, I imagine." Maria guessed.

"Megalomaniacs always see themselves at the head of the table, don't they?" Abby smirked back. "Anyway, she's always been a brilliant geneticist, she's created all sorts of mutagens that can create stronger or bigger bugs, but what she's doing now… I've never seen anything like this from her."

"I see…" Maria hesitated a moment. "I'm afraid I may be responsible for giving her the key to this particular plan." Abby looked at her in surprise, but didn't have to ask her to continue. "I created Creepie Creecher, the second genetically spliced human insect hybrid in the world… it took years and years of research and failed attempts by hundreds of gifted scientists, and… well… I won't bore you with all of the specifics, but now somehow Cara must have found Creepie and is controlling her towards her own ends, along with using her genetic blueprint as a base for this transformational mutagen."

"With pheromones… she's using pheromones to control Creepie, and probably the rest too. She uses those a lot to control her bugs, but the kind she's using now is the strongest she's ever produced." Abby shook her head, then thought of something. "You said Creepie was the second hybrid… does that mean there's another one out there somewhere?"

"That's correct." Maria nodded. "The first was made a bit before I joined the project, a prototype that succeeded but whose development could never be monitored."

"Why not?"

"She escaped." Maria smiled simply. "You see, Creepie was developed under a project called "Project Spider-Man" in the hopes of using some of the most unique and powerful properties of the insect kingdom to create a powerful soldier, but before that, the Government thought that their resources would be better turned toward increasing troop effectiveness as a whole, and that meant creating not the perfect soldier, but the perfect leader, who would never be questioned and who could inspire their troops to performing even the most daunting of tasks with all of their might… this was dubbed Project Overseer."

Abby listened in rapt attention as she continued. "They created this hybrid using the primary genetic base of the most powerful pheromone producing creature in the insect kingdom… the queen bee. There were other components of course, but the bee was the primary base, combined with the human elements. The result was a baby girl who seemed normal… at first. Even as a child her pheromone output was remarkable in that, not only could she actually control the creatures of the insect kingdom, but her hybrid nature modified them to directly affect the minds of humans in a big way… which was the plan, of course."

"What happened to her?" Abby asked.

"That was the major flaw in their plan." Maria smirked slightly. "I was busy monitoring Creepie's development, but some time that year Project Overseer hit a snag when the people around the child began to exhibit strange and extraordinary behavior. Her pheromones became so power that even as a child of two years old the scientists themselves began to fight each other over what was best for her. The best way to describe it was that the child caused an uprising within the laboratory, and eventually she, along with a group of the scientists who abandoned their careers, vanished into the night."

Abby narrowed her eyes. "These things that are based on Creepie… they're part human, that's why Insectiva needed a super strong pheromone to control them, right?"

"Why yes." Maria smiled in appreciation. "You've got a sharp mind for a girl so young."

"So if Insectiva's pheromone only affects the insect parts of the mind, while this girl's pheromones also target the human side along with the insect side, couldn't her pheromones overpower Insectiva's and break her control?"

Maria blinked in surprise. "Why yes… that would be perfectly plausible… if we could find her. Nobody has ever been able to find her in all these years, or if they did, they never told anybody about it. I imagine after 15 years, her ability to control others is nearly irresistible."

"Well then we need to find her…" Abby tightened her lips and nodded firmly. "If Insectiva's already mutated three entire towns, she already has an army of these things under her control. With their strength and ferocity, they could start taking towns by FORCE if they wanted to."

"You're right of course… I'll see if I can get any leads on Project Overseer's current whereabouts." Maria stood up from the sofa. "In the meantime, feel free to relax. I know you're probably still sore, you took a pretty nasty fall."

"Oh!" They both looked back behind the sofa as Chris-Alice walked into the room with a large plate stacked with pancakes in one hand, and a large glass of orange juice in the other. "You're out here, I thought I told you not to leave the bed!"

"Sorry, I get restless." Abby replied with an apologetic smile.

"Why don't you two get to know one-another? I'll go get started on our little plan." Maria nodded down at Abby and gave Chris-Alice a small wave before turning to head into the back.

Chris-Alice joined Abby on the couch and handed her the plate and glass with a smile. "I hope it's good, I made it myself."

"Wow, thanks." Abby's stomach grumbled again, as if calling for something to fill it. She cut a massive chunk off of one of the pancakes and shoved it unceremoniously into her mouth with a contented sigh. "Oh yeah, that's good stuff."

"Heh, glad you like it." Chris-Alice beamed proudly. "So what happened out there? Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"I will be… once this is all over…" Abby replied softly. When she saw Chris-Alice's expression darken slightly, she forced a bright smile onto her face. "We just have a lot to do to make things right before this will all be over, no big deal."

"Oh, I know all about that. Doing the right thing can be so hard, but it's always worth it too. Anything that makes people smile is worth doing." Chris-Alice smiled broadly. "Especially when it comes to your best friends."

"Yeah, I guess I can't argue with that." Abby smiled back. The silence was broken a moment later by the news anchor on the TV.

"We have breaking news now, I have just received report of a tape that was sent from one of the affected towns to this very station. It is not clear who the tape is from, but we believe the chilling message is one everyone needs to hear to understand the full gravity of what's been going on here. Let's take a listen…"

Abby and Chris-Alice watched the TV as a blank blue screen came up, and a familiar cackling voice came over the speakers. "Since the dawn of humanity, you have abused your power to destroy this planet, and everything living on it. You've foolishly believed that you were destined to be the dominant species for the rest of time… but now your fate is fast approaching. There is no resisting, there is no fighting. Humanity's dawn has long since passed, and its end has finally come. Allow yourselves to adapt to the glorious new forms, as insects that will determine the course of the future, or… allow your lives to end with the human race. It doesn't matter which you choose, your end will come… one way or another."

Chris-Alice shivered. "Wow, talk about creepy." Abby said nothing, cupping her hands in front of her chin and staring at the blank blue screen after the message had ended. Insectiva was really serious this time, and now she had the means to make good on her promises. They had to find a way to neutralize her army, and they had to do it fast…


	7. Facing the Crisis

Chapter 07: Facing the Crisis

Abby and Ty had taken some pretty bad injuries from their fall out of the GRS1, but it wasn't anything they needed a hospital for. Maria was a good enough doctor to nurse them mostly back to health over the course of the next two days, though they didn't like wasting the time. Through the news they kept up on Insectiva's activities, unable to do anything but watch as she took two more small towns. It wasn't a huge number of people, but Abby knew the numbers wouldn't stay small much longer. As her army grew Insectiva would get more ambitious, it was only a matter of time before she started hitting big cities, and then it would be too late. The military wouldn't stand by and watch forever, they would eventually find Insectiva, war would begin… and hundreds would die.

However, Maria's search for the other human insect hybrid had thus far turned up no results, and since Abby's communicator had been thrashed in the fall from the GRS1, they had no way to contact the Director, and they had no idea where Lab Rat was. They couldn't even contact their family, Abby now realized with a sudden dull throb in her heart. Her parents were part of that army Insectiva was building, along with everyone they knew. It was like they were completely alone in this…

Well, if there was a bright side, it was that Middlington wasn't a bad place to visit. Chris-Alice was extremely nice, if a bit hyper, and came over every day to make sure they were okay. Skipper likewise spent most of his time at Maria's house as well, though he seemed less interested in the Archer siblings than he did in seeing if Maria had found a way to help Creepie yet. The boy was obsessed, but once Maria told her that Creepie was his girlfriend his obsession actually seemed kind of sweet, in a spooky way.

It wasn't a bad place, but Abby had had enough of waiting for Maria to get results. If they couldn't find this second hybrid, she would find a way to reverse this herself, even if it meant sneaking back into her hometown and using the Gag Lab herself to get it. Sadly, her Slime Suit had been shredded by the glass in her fall, so she was stuck wearing a normal pair of jeans and a tank top, which she packed more of into the backpack in one of the guest rooms of Maria's house.

She thought about bringing Ty with her, he was better with the Gag Lab's equipment, but after watching him be taken by Creepie the other night, she didn't want him anywhere near these things. So she zipped up her backpack after filling it with all of the essentials she would need like food and water, flung it over her shoulder, stuck a note on the fridge door and turned to leave, heading out the front door while the others were in the back.

"Ack!" Chris-Alice yelped in surprise when Abby slammed right into her in her haste, knocking her back out onto the front porch away from the front door. "Hey! What's the big hurry?"

"Oh, man, sorry!" Abby apologized quickly as she slammed the door shut behind her. "I was just uh… just…"

Chris-Alice looked at the strap of the backpack on her back with a suspicious gaze. "Are you going somewhere?"

Abby glanced back at the door, hiking the backpack more securely onto her shoulder. "Okay, I'm going back home. I think there's something there that can help, but I don't want anyone to know about it, so please don't tell."

"And you're going alone? That's just stupid." Chris-Alice told her.

"Maybe it is, but I don't want Ty getting involved in this. He's a scientist, not a fighter, and this is going to be very very dangerous."

"That just makes it even dumber to go alone." Chris-Alice huffed, though she still had a strange look on her face. "Do you think Creepie's still there?"

"I don't know." Abby replied honestly. "I guess if Insectiva made that town her hive, she probably is. Not really practical to move that many bugs around the country and not get noticed by someone."

Chris-Alice nodded firmly and crossed her arms over her chest. "Then I'm coming." Abby's eyes widened, then she started snickering behind one hand. "Hey, I can take care of myself! I've been taking cheerleading AND Karate classes since I was six! I can hold my own!"

"'Sat so?" Abby looked her up and down curiously, then gestured down the sidewalk. "Is there a park around here we can use?"

The two girls made their way to the park in the center of Middlington, which was deserted this early in the morning. Abby dropped her backpack to the ground and turned back to Chris-Alice, putting her hands up in front of her in a loose fighting stance. "You think you can help me? Prove it."

Chris-Alice's eyes widened for a moment, then she grinned and dropped into her own fighting stance, turned to the side with one arm in front of her and the other in front of her stomach. "I'm not going easy on ya."

"Good." Abby smiled back. The girl's stance looked professional, but that part was easily learned from movies. It was what they did from it that mattered.

Abby made the first move, throwing herself forward with a wide punch, but Chris-Alice deftly ducked under the blow, then hooked one arm around Abby's as it passed, using her momentum to flip her straight over her back. Abby flipped head over heels, slamming into the grass on her back, but she didn't waist a moment's time in scrambling back to her feet.

She threw a tremendous back-kick at Chris-Alice without turning around. The move must have caught her off-guard, because the foot caught her clean in the ribcage, doubling her over in pain and surprise. Abby brought her foot forward, then threw it back again in another kick toward her face, but Chris-Alice moved just enough to dodge this one, slipping beside the leg and catching it in both arms so she could shove it upward.

Abby flailed in surprise, suddenly finding herself balancing on one foot while Chris-Alice yanked her forward with the other. She bounced forward so that she wouldn't fall, and her opponent brought her arm around in a powerful wide punch of her own, but Abby leaned back to let it sail by right in front of her face before bouncing back upright at Chris-Alice's side and slipping both arms around her neck and torso, squeezing tight enough to yank Chris-Alice up against her chest and trap her arms above her head.

Abby squeezed with a grin on her face while Chris-Alice struggled to get loose. "Looks like… you're not quite… up to par." Abby quipped. "You gonna give up?"

"H-hah!" Abby was surprised to see that Chris-Alice was also smiling, even though she was sweating and panting heavily from the continuing battle. "I never give up… because I'm a Hollyruller… and Hollyrullers… always… WIN!" Chris-Alice suddenly bent down slightly, then heaved herself off of the grass, using Abby as a platform as she slipped out of her arms and did a clean summersault right over her back using her shoulders as a bar.

Chris-Alice landed heavily behind her, then whirled in a high-kick right as Abby whirled around. The kick would have ended the fight right there, but Abby managed to duck back and avoid it, putting a little distance between them. Once again the two girls faced each other, both panting heavily while sweat beaded on their forehead. Abby had to admit, this was fun, and the grin on Chris-Alice's face told her she was thinking the same thing.

Chris-Alice made the first move this time, her arm lashing out with lightning speed in a vicious palm-strike, but Abby deflected it easily with one hand, moving to launch a palm of her own into Chris-Alice's face, but her head moved out of the way just in time, leaving Abby stumbling into her, her side lurching into her opponent's chest. Chris-Alice's arms closed toward her throat, but she brought her arms up to knocks her arms away then grab Chris-Alice's head and yank her around, dragging her toward her front.

Without warning Chris-Alice threw herself straight forward, instead of back like Abby expected, slamming her head into Abby's stomach and tackling her cleanly to the ground. Abby gasped when Chris-Alice's hands grabbed her wrists and thrust them against the grass as she moved to straddle her waist, panting and sweating from her exertions with a broad grin on her face. "H-hah, I gotcha." She grinned in victory.

"Wow…" Abby panted in astonishment. "You're really good."

Chris-Alice grinned and climbed off of her, reaching down to take her hand and help her off the grass. "Can I come help you now? Pleeeaaase? Creepie's my best friend, and I've been waiting a whole month to find a way to help her… I can't just sit around here now that we finally know where she is."

Abby sighed. "All right, you can come… but I've got to warn you, Creepie's not exactly herself right now. She's being controlled by Insectiva."

"I don't care. I just want to make sure she's really okay, with my own eyes." Chris-Alice replied.

"Okay, then." Abby hefted her backpack off the grass again and slung it over her shoulder. "Let's get out of here, time isn't on our side, and we still need to find a way to get there quickly."

"Right." Chris-Alice nodded and turned to walk with Abby down the sidewalk, the first steps on their journey back to the Gag Lab to find a way to put an end to this, and save the human race.

***

Maria sighed and leaned back in her chair, pulling her glasses off of her nose to rub her eyes warily. "None of my old contacts know anything about Project Overseer, it's like the girl just dropped off the face of the planet. I've tried everything I can…"

"Maybe the Bureau of Grossology Database has something on it. Can I try?" Ty asked, wearing the blue jeans and T-shirt he'd borrowed from Skipper since he'd been brought here in his pajamas. Maria gestured to the computer and moved out of the chair, letting him take the seat and start tapping his way through files and onto the global network called the World Wide Web.

He moved through the network, trying to remember how to get into the Bureau files. He'd always just used the communicators before, or Lab Rat had done most of the work, but he was a sharp kid when it came to computers and science. Soon he found the Grossology servers, but a screen came up on the monitor demanding a password. Ty leaned back in his seat for a moment, then smirked. "Come on Lab Rat, you can't be that predictable…" He reached forward and typed in 'Hermes'. Instantly the screen vanished, and they were welcomed into the datafiles.

"Tell your friend he needs better security procedures." Maria smirked. "Can you find anything in there relating to Project Overseer?"

"I'm looking, but I don't see anything. It looks like most of these files are just old Grossology case records." Ty roamed through the server, looking for anything that might relate. It brought back a lot of old memories of cases he and his sister had dealt with, and he was surprised to see that some of the files even went back as far as the days that Lance Boil had been with the Bureau. Now that he thought about it, Project Overseer had ended fourteen years ago. It should be around this time frame…

"I'm getting boooooored!" Paulie shouted from the bed. "Are we gonna go help Creepie yet!?"

"Hold on, I think I might have found something…" Ty clicked on one of the files, which was marked 'Strange Town'. "According to this, a Grossology team was once dispatched to a small town to investigate the strange behavior of its people. They were sent to investigate when police weren't able to find anything wrong… but the Grossology team did find one thing strange about it…"

"What did they find?" Maria asked curiously.

"The whole place was laced with pheromones… but that in itself isn't a crime, and the people there still seemed happy even if they were acting weird, so no follow-up investigations were ever launched." Ty finished.

"That's got to be where she ended up." Maria stood up straight.

"Then we're going." Maria and Ty looked back to see Skipper appear in the bedroom doorway, holding a piece of paper in one hand. "And I'm coming with you guys."

"Great, I'll just go tell Abby." Ty stood up.

"I don't think she's going with us…" Skipper held up the note.

Curiously, Maria took it and read it. "Oh that stupid girl has gone back to your lab…"

"What!? Alone!?" Ty raised his hands in front of him, clutching at the air. "But, but she couldn't just leave me here! What was she thinking!? Maybe we can still catch up with her!"

"Time is of the essence Ty… besides, we don't know for sure that we're going to find the subject of Project Overseer. It could be a dead-end, and if that happens, we'll need another plan… it'll increase our chances of success if we split up and all look for solutions."

"But… we always work together…" Ty's arms drooped at his sides. "Why would she just leave me here…?"

"I'm sure she had a reason." Skipper told him with a slight smile. "For now though, we have to worry about putting an end to this. Are you with us?"

"Uh… I think I should stay here, actually." Paulie nervously tugged on one of his arms. "I'm kind of allergic to dangerous things…"

"I think I should stay here as well, and monitor the situation… you have my number if things get out of hand, Skipper. I'll try to get in touch with Abby too. We need to coordinate all of this." She turned to Ty. "You don't have to go…"

Ty looked up at them for a moment, then stood and puffed his chest out confidently. "Of course I'm coming, I don't NEED Abby to help save the world… I can do it. The only question is… how do we get there?"

Skipper smirked. "Actually, I think I can cover that one. I'll let you in on a trick we used the last time we had to find someone…"


	8. The Bee and Her Hive

Chapter 08: The Bee and Her Hive

The truck rumbled along the long stretch of road between towns, the gruff-looking man in the driver's seat gripping the wheel with one hand while the other was draped across the seats beside him. Behind him, sitting in the open cab, were two redheaded girls curled up against the side of the truck across from one-another, looking out at the empty fields that passed at a fast pace. Their hair flew back sharply behind the truck like red ribbons, flapping in the fast wind.

"I think it'll take a while to get there like this." Chris-Alice shouted over the fierce winds.

"Hey, at least we're moving." Abby shouted back over the wind. "Besides, it's better to travel incognito so Insectiva doesn't see us coming."

"Do you really think we'll be able to get around the town undetected once we get there?"

"We'll find a way." Abby replied confidently. "We have to, we can't mess this up." She looked down in surprise when the cell phone from her pocket began to ring. She pulled it out and looked at the number on the display, then sighed softly. "They're already looking for us…" She shoved the phone back into her pocket. "We'll let them know when we make some progress…"

Chris-Alice nodded and leaned back against the side of the truck. They had a long trip ahead of them, and an even harder road ahead of that. It was best to get what rest they could now before their lives were really put on the line…

***

"Wow…" Ty looked up at the web parachutes that carried himself and skipper rapidly through the sky like a pair of pollen puffs from a plant. "I can't believe your 'mom' can make strands of webbing strong enough to carry humans. We'll get there in no time flying like this." He tugged on one of the web strands curiously. "Hm, I'd really like to get a sample of this stuff for study once we're finished saving the world."

"If you keep my mom a secret, I'll let you take whatever you want." Skipper replied seriously.

"I'll keep your secret if you keep mine." Ty gave him a thumbs up. He looked down at his pocket when he heard his cell phone ring. He plucked it from his pocket and pulled it up to his ear. "Ty Archer speaking."

"Ty, I haven't been able to raise Abby." Maria said. "Either she's ignoring our calls because she doesn't want to be traced or she's been incapacitated… either way, we can't rely on her progress. It's all on you guys."

Ty gulped and closed his eyes, hating the idea of Abby being incapacitated. No, she wouldn't go down without a fight, she never has. She was too strong for that. "Yeah, understood. We'll let you know when we make contact with the subject. Ty out…" Ty closed his phone and shoved into his pocket, looking at Skipper on the other line. "Looks like it's up to us."

"We'll do what we're here to do. Creepie's depending on us." Skipper nodded firmly, looking down from the parachute. "Well, I think that looks like the place."

Ty looked down as well to see a small town bustling with people rushing back and forth across the crowded streets, past the large sign that said 'Welcome to Beehive'. The people were all moving with singular purpose, weaving around each other with barely a 'hello'. It looked more like a massive anthill than a regular small town, an impression only strengthened by the fact that everyone was wearing striped ponchos that covered their bodies from shoulder to ankle.

"Yeah, I'd call this place pretty weird." Ty reached up to the parachute's second line. "Let's get to the ground and see what's going on." Ty and Skipper both released their second lines, letting half of their chutes float up higher into the sky as their natural weight weighed down what was left, letting them float gently down towards the ground. They touched down near the massive sign and unhooked the parachutes from their waists.

"I've heard of fashion trends before, but this is just ridiculous." Ty shook his head. "I don't see a single person wearing something different. What do we do now?"

"Find the leader, and see if she's the subject of Project Overseer." Skipper was all business. "Let's get going." He marched toward the town, with Ty falling into step right beside him.

They marched right into the town. The second their feet hit the pavement of the road that ran down the middle of the street, those closest to them turned to stare at them with suspicious looks on their faces. The two boys stopped in their tracks and looked around as more and more people turned to look at them, until it seemed like everyone in the town was just staring at them, waiting for them to provoke them into action.

"We want to see who's in charge here." Ty took a few steps forward. The townspeople didn't react or relax their guard. "Please, we just need to talk to her for a few minutes. We don't mean anybody any harm." The people stared at him a while longer, then suddenly turned their gazes into the crowd.

The crowd parted like a wave, everyone moving aside as a single smaller figure approached. She too wore a poncho, but she was younger than the others, with a blank, almost vacant smile on her face as she bowed to them. "Her Highness has agreed to speak with you. Please follow me." She turned to walk back through the tunnel through the crowd. Ty and Skipper exchanged a curious glance, then turned to follow her through the town.

The tunnel through the crowed continued all the way up to a nice white building in the dead center of town, which they entered to find that the main room had obviously been modified from a government office building into something closer to a palace. A luxurious red carpet led up to a massive marble chair near the far wall. On this throne of sorts sat a girl, only slightly older than the two boys, with a confident smile on her face and a poncho just like the others draped over her entire body.

As they approached the throne, Ty definitely felt something strange broiling in his stomach. It suddenly felt like he was home to dozens of rambunctious butterflies that were desperately trying to get out. His stomach started spinning, his head got dizzy, but he struggled to fight it off. A glance beside him proved that Skipper was having the same problems the closer they got to the throne. This was definitely the right place.

"My my…" The girl smiled carelessly, resting her chin on one hand, which was propped up on the arm of the throne. "Two little boys coming to my town out of nowhere? This isn't something that happens every day… color me intrigued."

"We know who you are." Ty said firmly. "We know WHAT you are… and we need your help."

"Is that so?" The girl's smile didn't fade. "What ever for?"

"To save the world." Skipper stepped up beside Ty, his face a firm mask of determination. "The human race is being wiped out… systematically turned into insect-hybrids."

"Is that where they've all been going?" The girl blinked in surprise, then grinned. "I fail to see how this hurts me… in fact, it doesn't sound like a bad idea at all." She stood from her throne and walked closer to the boys, her hips swaying under the poncho. "Humans are so judgmental and hollow… really only good for one thing… to do my bidding. Of course, insects shaped like humans could just as easily do my bidding."

Ty gulped back the butterflies in his stomach, struggling to keep his mind focused on the task at hand. "You can't mean that. Sure people can be mean sometimes, but even after being created by Project Overseer-"

"My NAME is Regina Beesley." The girl insisted suddenly as her smile faded. "Or did you not even think it was worth introducing yourself to someone like me?"

"N-no, of course I didn't think that." Ty argued. Regina raised one hand to place it on his cheek, sending his mind into a dull haze of thoughtless feeling. "Nngh…" he grunted.

"Forget about what you need… think from now on about what I need." Regina stroked his cheek. Ty's eyes were glazed over, but suddenly Skipper's hand snapped out, snatching Regina by the wrist and yanking her over to him. She gasped in shock as she was pulled up against his chest, staring into his furious eyes.

"We are not going to be your servants." Skipper told her in no uncertain tones. "I don't care how strong your hormones are, the only thing I care about is saving Creepie."

Regina's eyes flashed in recognition. "Creepie? Creepie Creecher? RRGH!" She growled in anger and yanked her wrist away from him. "How DARE you touch me like that!? Especially after touching that horrible girl! If it wasn't for her, I would have an even bigger hive in Middlington! I wouldn't have been alone so long! That THING ruined everything!" Her screams echoed through the empty hallways. Seconds later several men burst into the room, moving to surround the two boys.

Skipper backed closer to Ty, eyeing the men cautiously. "If Creepie is in danger, that's all the more reason to never let you loose to help her. Let her suffer, let her cry, let her DIE and then she will have what she deserves!" Regina's scream was rapidly growing wilder, her fists clenching at her sides. Even her eyes seemed to be glowing a dark green hue. "And you two… being a servant is too good for you. You will never see daylight again." She snapped her fingers and the men closed in, grabbing them roughly and holding them in a grip of iron.

"Hey!" Skipper struggled vainly to free himself, but there was no chance he could actually get free, and Ty still seemed too dazed by Regina to be any help whatsoever. "Let us go! You can't really hate the human race THAT much! Trust me, I may not be a bug, but I know what it's like to deal with trying to live as a bug in a human world. My mother's a spider!"

"I don't care about you, why should I?" Regina marched up to him again now that he was safely restrained by her guards. "This world has no mercy for 'kindness'! There are only two kinds of people, queens, and drones. I am a queen, and anyone who dares to defy me will pay the price for their defiance!"

"That's really how you see the world?" Skipper shook his head. "No wonder you're so angry…"

"GUARDS! Take them to the dungeon, NOW!" Regina jerked her finger toward the door that led down to the dungeons. "I don't want to see their faces again, until there's nothing left of them but rotting corpses!" The guards yanked the boys towards the exit so strongly their feet ended up dragging along the floor.

The two of them were dragged down a flight of stairs into what must have been an extremely old dungeon. It was only dimly lit with fluorescent lights, but the walls around them were simply made of the stone that they'd carved to make the tunnel in the first place. The boys were dragged to one of the cells near the front, and thrown inside the cage in a hump on the floor. Skipper scrambled to his feet, but by the time he did, the cage door was already closed.

"Oohhh… man…" Ty rubbed his head. When Skipper kneeled down to check on him, he saw that his eyes were still glazed over, probably from the up-close dose of pheromones he got from Regina. "I feel so lightheaded…"

"Relax, it should wear off soon." Skipper told him with a sigh. This was just fantastic. They were the world's only hope, and the girl who they came to recruit had a vendetta against the human race. There had to be a way to get her to see that not all humans are bad. There had to…


	9. A Bee's Life

Chapter 09: A Bee's Life

"Thanks for the ride!" Abby waved at the family in the blue van as they pulled away from the side of the road, heading down the street away from her and Chris-Alice. They were standing on the side of the street, munching on some of the Beef Jerky Abby had packed for the journey. "Okay, the Gag Lab is hidden in the next city. We should approach on foot so they won't see us coming." She and Chris-Alice turned to walk down the street side-by-side.

"There's still something I don't completely understand about all of this." Chris-Alice admitted.

"What's that?" Abby asked around a mouthful of jerky.

"Creepie found out what she really was months ago, why did it take this 'Insectiva' woman so long to find her, and why did she only come after her now? For that matter, how did she find Creepie in the first place? Everything that happened was never broadcast on the news or anything."

"I don't know, maybe it was some kind of accident." Abby shrugged. "How it happened doesn't really matter though, does it? I mean, as long as we make it right again."

"Yeah, you're right." Chris-Alice nodded. "Making it right is definitely what matters now."

"Yeah, it's okay if bad things happen, even if they're our own fault, as long as we fix them." Abby nodded back, then blinked and looked straight ahead. "And fix them as soon as possible…"

Chris-Alice looked at her worriedly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just… had a fight with a friend before all this started." Abby admitted. "He apologized for it, but… I never did. Thinking about it… I may never get a chance to apologize if this thing has gone as far as it looks."

"Hey, Insectiva's just transforming people, not hurting them, right? So we can help him, and then you can apologize. No big deal." Chris-Alice grinned.

"Heh… yeah, you're right." Abby stood up straight. "We're definitely going to fix this… no matter how long it takes."

***

Her throne was warm. This was usually comforting to her, being part bee made it difficult to survive cold weather without something thick to wrap herself up in, which was why she'd taken to wearing the poncho. Well that, and the fact that it effectively hid her wings and second pair of arms. The best part was that nobody ever questioned it because of her distinctly Hispanic skin tone. This had all served her well until she'd finally found a place to build her own hive, a new hive that wouldn't be destroyed or reject her. A hive she could live in forever in peace.

This was what Regina Beesley had been searching for ever since she could remember. Her first memories were of those people in the white lab coats caring for her in a nondescript house in the middle of a nondescript town. They hadn't taken great pains to hide her, and she had been happy for a long time, though she never did figure out why she couldn't leave the house without her poncho. It was dangerous, they had told her time and time again. She always listened to them… they were like her parents, after all. They had known best.

Everyone was always nice to her, and at the time, she hadn't understood why. The store owners would give her free stuff, people would offer her their seats on the busses, the other kids would always volunteer to play with her, she was as close to royalty as a girl could get without wearing a crown, and she even did that on Halloween several times. She didn't know why, but she'd never thought to question it. Those were the best years of her life.

That was until she'd had a sleepover with a friend, and her poncho had come off. Suddenly the dream had ended, and the reality of the world had come crashing down on her head-on. Everyone who had been so nice to her became suspicious and quiet, avoiding her whenever possible. Some tried to remain her friend, but it was never the same. She couldn't understand why they had turned on her, why they were rejecting her when before they had been treating her like a queen. After enough time of being outcast, even her family began to leave and never return, one by one. She was losing everything… but she wouldn't let it go forever.

She left that town and tried again, this time managing on her own. She'd found another town that had, at first, welcomed her with open arms, just the way the people of her hometown did. Everyone gave her all she asked for, they helped her learn and grow, the entire town took her under their wing… until, once again, someone caught sight of her true nature while she was bathing. This town, too, turned again her, refusing her everything that was clearly her right, everything that she clearly deserved. She was a queen, damnit, and nobody could take that away from her.

So she moved to the next town… then the next… then the next for four years. In each town most would welcome her, except for one skeptic who seemed immune to her charms. In each town that skeptic revealed her for what she was, and in each town Regina was once again driven away. By this time, she'd come to realize what the problem was. The problem was with these stupid humans. They were too full of themselves, too arrogant, and yet… she found she still craved their companionship. It was a strange feeling. She'd almost gotten used to flitting from town to town, until she reached… Middlington.

Once again the people had flocked to her side, giving her all that she asked for… except for those two whining little girls, Carla and Creepie. Regina had never come so close before to being truly accepted into a place; those kids had been ready to accept her for the rest of time before those two stepped into the picture. The memory of them made her blood boil. Never had a girl so thoroughly humiliated her. They didn't even have to expose her for what she was, they had simply turned the town against her and driven her away. That was a new kind of betrayal she had never known before, and she didn't like it…

And now here she was, she thought idly to herself as she leaned against the side of the bath tub towards the back of her palace that had once been a mayoral mansion. After five years of searching, at the age of fifteen she'd found a place to call home, where the people were willing to give her all that she desired without question, despite knowing the truth about what she was. It was what she'd dreamed of since she left her hometown, but… she often found herself growing bored.

Craving entertainment, she lifted one arm out of the tub and snapped her fingers. Her female aid rushed out of the bathroom, and returned a moment later pushing a massive flat screen TV ahead of her. She rushed to deposit the remote on the nightstand Regina kept beside the tub for things she wanted while she was bathing, then retreated back near the door to keep watch for anyone who might barge in. The people were pretty well under her control, but sometimes they could still be thoughtless.

The TV didn't help alleviate her boredom very much; in fact it only illustrated to her just how stupid humans could be. She couldn't take more than a few minutes of it before she stood up straight in the tub and snapped her fingers again, pointing towards the door. Her female aid rushed to snatch the specially made robe with four arms from the hanger beside the door, then rushed it to the tub to slip it daintily onto Regina, careful not to crease her wings as it slid into place.

Without even being asked, her aid snatched a hairbrush off of the nightstand and set about brushing Regina's hair while she marched out of the bathroom and through her palace, tying the robe closed as she went. This was all very routine by now, she noticed suddenly. She did this every night, the only interesting thing that ever happened was when one of her drones decided to do something drastic in her honor, or when unexpected visitors dropped by.

Like the boys in the dungeon, she thought as she plopped down on her throne in her robe to think, staring at the exit. "That's really how you see the world? No wonder you're so angry." He'd told her before being dragged off to the dungeon. It seemed like a really stupid thing to say, of course that was how the world worked. It was how her entire life had worked, everyone looked up to her as a leader, and they were all followers who did whatever she commanded. What other way could there be?

This question spun around her mind, and however much she thought, she couldn't answer it. She wanted to dismiss it off-hand, to let the prisoners rot and go on with her life… but the question wouldn't go away. She needed an answer, and that boy was the only one who could give it to her. She hated that he was a friend of Creepie's, there was something wrong with that girl, but she really needed that answer…

She retired to her room to dress in her normal clothes, sliding the poncho and skirt on over the open-backed leotard that let her wings and second set of arms remain relatively free and comfortable underneath the loose piece of cloth. Then she made her way down to the dungeons, snapping her fingers to bring the pair of guards at the entrance along with her, just in case they tried anything.

The boy with the black hair was sleeping fitfully near the corner of the cell, but the one in the sweater was sitting wide awake near the door, curled up into a ball beside it. His eyes turned to her instantly as she approached, watching her with an unblinking gaze.

"I suppose you think you're smarter than me." Regina crossed her arms over her chest, watching the boy from outside the cell. "You probably think you know something I don't, that I have something wrong."

"I don't think I'm smarter than you." The boy replied softly. "I just think you're wrong. It happens to everyone, including me."

"And what exactly am I wrong about?" Regina huffed.

"Life isn't about leaders and followers, at least, not human life. Sure, there are people who rise to the top of a crowd and take charge, but there's still something that humans have that bugs don't, and can't, match."

"And what is that?" Regina demanded.

"Personalities." The boy grunted and pushed himself up to his feet. "Let me ask you something Regina… do your 'drones' talk?"

"Sure, when they have something to say." Regina glanced over her shoulder at the two guards, who stood watch dutifully.

"And you call that interacting with people?" The boy asked. "No offense, but that seems like a very lonely existence, no matter how many people you have around you."

Regina narrowed her eyes slightly, then gestured to one of her guards. The massive man stepped forward and unlocked the cell, letting the bars swing wide open. The boy looked at him in surprise, then looked into her eyes again.

"I've seen a lot of people resist my charms…" Regina mused in a softer tone of voice than she normally used. "But I've never seen someone so… free, around me."

The boy smirked slightly. "Maybe it's because my heart is broken, at the moment… I'm working on finding the girl who holds it."

"Creepie?"

"Yes." The boy nodded. "Which is one of many reasons we came to beg for your help. You are the key that could save her, and everyone else who's been transformed. You could turn away an army with your special gifts, make everyone stop fighting, maybe even make someone who's gone insane see reason."

"You still have yet to give me a reason to do so." Regina pointed out.

"Because you want to." The boy said simply. Regina raised one eyebrow questioningly. "You may think you're happy seeing people come and go, gawk at you in wonder and then leave again without saying so much as a word to you… even if they give you what you want, even if they provide everything you need… it's not enough, is it?"

"And how would you fix that?" Regina asked.

"I don't know… but I know someone who might be able to help you turn off this effect you have on people. Maybe then you could stop controlling people, and start being with them." The boy stepped outside of the cell, raising his hands out to the sides to prove he wasn't going to attack. "Trust me, I spent the first portion of my life just like this… I only really ever knew my mother and the other carnies, and watched everyone else give me what I wanted from a distance… until I met Creepie."

Regina nodded slightly. "I've got to admit… you have me interested… boy." She said.

The boy chuckled. "My name is Skipper… this is my friend, Ty." He gestured to the boy sleeping softly in the cell behind him. "Maybe we should wait until morning to head back."

"And maybe you'd like to sleep somewhere less horrible." She gestured to her two guards, who moved into the cell to pick up Ty and carry him out. "They'll take you to your room for the night… I'll come get you before we leave in the morning."

"Thank you." Skipper flashed her a handsome smile. "I knew you'd see reason eventually… and trust me, things will be better now. I promise." He patted her shoulder gently. She shivered slightly at the contact… she wasn't used to anyone touching her who wasn't grooming her in some way. She turned to watch Skipper follow her guards out of the dungeon, then turned to look at her female servant, who'd been following close on her heels the entire time.

"What's your name?" Regina asked.

The girl looked at her like she'd just sprouted horns. "N-name, Your Highness?" Regina nodded, and the girl blushed for a moment before responding. "Mary."

"Mary." Regina nodded. "Come, I'm ready for bed." She turned to head upstairs, hearing Mary rushing quickly along behind her. She'd enjoyed being the queen of this place for a while now… she was definitely ready for something new. Even if it meant helping Creepie.


	10. Inside the Hive

Chapter 10: Inside the Hive

The city was quiet as the night fell like a shroud. The stars shined brightly in the sky above, flanking the moon like its own personal army as, in the darkness, creatures swarmed back and forth on their way to do whatever mutant hybrids had to do every day. It was creepy how different the city looked, Abby noted as she slipped through the shadows with her companion trailing along right behind her. The streets hadn't changed, the buildings were still standing, and even the cars along the side of the road were the same… but it was so empty of human life that it sent a shiver up her spine.

Abby and Chris-Alice peered out from a side alley as several mutated figured hovered right past, their wings buzzing rapidly against the air, carrying them a few feet off the ground as they disappeared into the distance. Still, while they were gone, they could see dozens more hovering through the air or perched on the walls high above the city streets. It really was starting to look like a massive nest of a new race… just what Insectiva had wanted.

"There's just too many of them." Abby narrowed her eyes. "We're not going to be able to get close to the Gag Lab without being detected. Not on the streets, anyway."

"So what do we do?" Chris-Alice asked.

"Use an old Grossologist trick." Abby smirked and ducked back into the alley, moving a ways into it before kneeling and gripping an old manhole cover in both hands. She managed to pry it up out of the ground before pulling a small flashlight out of her pocket and shining it into the hole. "Nobody ever watches the sewers."

"Oh, ewe…" Chris-Alice covered her nose as she approached. "Do we have to?"

"Better stinky than sorry, I say. Come on!" Abby flashed her a grin, then turned to drop into the manhole without a moment's hesitation. She heard Chris-Alice groan, but the girl soon followed her down, dropping into the calve-deep water with a splash.

"Oh, ewe! It feels slimy!" Chris-Alice complained.

"Eugh, yeah, I've never been down here without a Slime Suit. Not fun." Abby turned to shine the flashlight down the tunnel ahead of them. "Come on, the sooner we get to the Gag Lab, the sooner we're not standing in liquid crap." She started walking. She ignored the sound of Chris-Alice heaving behind her for a moment, then turning to splash her way after her, taking up step beside her still holding her nose against the smell.

They moved through the dark sewers with the flashlight being their only source of illumination. Chris-Alice clung to one of Abby's arms as if afraid she would be pulled away by the shadows, but Abby didn't mind. She was feeling a little creeped out too. She just hoped she remembered the way to Ringworm Middle School from here. If they got lost down here, there was no telling where they would surface, if they ever found a way back up.

"So…" Chris-Alice's voice echoed through the empty sewer tunnel. "Do you do this sort of thing a lot?"

"You could say that." Abby nodded. "A Grossologist's work is never pretty, I'm afraid."

Chris-Alice giggled softly. "Yeah, I imagine it wouldn't be." She smiled and squeezed her arm tighter. "So tell me about yourself."

They talked idly while they walked. It certainly helped make the oppressive darkness less oppressive. Chris-Alice was very open about her life and her interests, and after all that was happening, Abby didn't feel like she had to hold anything back either. After a short time it almost felt like she was talking with an old friend who'd come back into town. She was so upbeat and personable it was hard not to like her.

Still, the fun had to end at some point, and it ended when they reached the ladder leading up to the manhole cover that Abby was pretty sure led up to the school. She crawled up the ladder slowly and put one hand against the bottom of the cover, pushing it up slightly to peer out into the night. The school seemed to stand empty, but like every part of the city, there were mutant hybrids hovering randomly through the sky around it, and there was nothing but a big, open field between them and it.

"No cover… we're going to have to make a break for it. I think if we can get into the school, we can take down anyone who follows us." Abby reasoned in a soft whisper.

"Are you sure we can make it to the school before they catch up to us?" Chris-Alice whispered worriedly.

Abby glanced at her, then gripped one of her hands tightly. "We'll just stay together, and run on the count of three. You ready?" Chris-Alice nodded and took a deep breath, turning to look at the school. "One… two… three!"

The manhole cover slid all the way off of the manhole in an instant, and the two girls were off, their fiery red hair whipping behind them as they sprinted full speed across the grass towards the building's front doors. Their feet pounded across the lawn with heavy stomps, stamping it down with dull noises, though that and the sound of their harsh breath were the only noises they made. They were otherwise deathly silent, though stealth could only get them so far out in the open like this.

"Hey! Intruders!" A female voice shouted when the two girls were about halfway to their goal. "Stop them! Don't let them escape! Her Highness will want to question them!" Instantly every hybrid within earshot whirled to intercept the girls, their wings buzzing even louder than before as they closed the distance.

"Break through, and don't stop!" Abby shouted as she released her companion's hand to allow herself to move. She leapt over one of the creatures as it dove towards her, its talons barely missing her ankles. She came down on the other side and went into an instant spin, her hands knocking away two more talons and sending another creature flying off in another direction.

Right beside her Chris-Alice was spinning deftly around another creature, her body moving with the grace and fluidity of a snake. She kicked herself off of the grass to avoid the next assault, spreading her legs in the air in a deep splits and letting the creature fly right underneath her before hitting the ground running without losing any speed at all.

The two girls pumped their legs as hard as they could, weaving through the chattering, screaming mob of insect hybrids until they both reached the front doors of the middle school at the same time… and slammed into them full-speed, bouncing back in a painful manner. They both threw themselves against the doors again, pushing at them and gripping desperately at the handle. Slowly they both turned to stare at each other, mumbling at the same time "locked…"

The two girls whirled, then threw themselves to the ground just in time to avoid the slashing claws that slammed into the door behind them, embedding themselves into the solid wood. The two girls each grabbed one of the creature's arms, placed their legs against its stomach, and heaved it back over their heads with all the force they could muster. The bug's body slammed right into the center of the doors with enough force to knock the lock clean off, sending it hurtling into the hallway beyond in a tangle of flailing limbs.

The two girls rolled inside the building and scrambled to their feet, leaping over the fallen hybrid and charging down the hallway in a full sprint. Abby looked back over her shoulder as she ran, then smiled victoriously. As she'd thought, the hallway was too small for the creatures to fly through en-masse. They were landing at the entrance and following on foot, which was significantly slower than their wings.

"Come on! This way!" Abby grabbed Chris-Alice's hand and whirled to turn down another hallway. Chris-Alice skidded to make the sudden turn, her foot slamming into the lockers that lined the walls as they charged through the building. It was difficult to navigate with the lights out, the only lights they could see by were the pieces of moonlight that floated into the hallway from the classrooms. Thankfully, Abby had been down these hallways hundreds of times. She knew exactly where she was going.

After one more turn she ran halfway down toward the next hallway, then let go of Chris-Alice's hand to run her hands over the nearby lockers, unsure exactly which one led to the passage that led down to the Gag Lab.

"Abby, I can't see anything!" Chris-Alice complained. "Are you still there?"

"I'm here, I'm just looking for something. Give me a second." Abby gritted her teeth, feeling the locks of each locker. They all felt completely normal. Did she get lost after all? Which locker was it?

"Come on Abby, hurry…" Chris-Alice gulped. The sound of beating wings and grumbling voices could be heard echoing through the hallways. They were still combing the hallways for them… it wouldn't be long before they had no place to run. Come on, Abby thought to herself, the locker had to be around here. The footsteps were getting uncomfortably close, now…

"Yes!" Abby grinned when she felt a thicker padlock in her palm. She twisted it into formation, and was rewarded with the flashing green 'G' that lit up the darkness momentarily. "Come on!" Abby reached back to grab her companion's arm and yank her into the suddenly opening locker, slamming it behind them a moment later and leaning against it. She gulped and closed her eyes, listening to the sound of footsteps and softly beating wings pass right by outside the locker without stopping.

"Abby? Where are we?" Chris-Alice whispered once the sounds had disappeared. She squeaked in surprise when lights began to shine from further behind them, illuminating the smooth tunnel that let down deeper into the ground.

"My home away from home." Abby smiled with a wink and turned to head further in. "Come on, if we're ever going to find a way to fix this, it'll be here!" She jogged down the sloping hallway, letting Chris-Alice jog in step right behind her. She ignored the usual devices that gave her her Slime Suit, making her way straight to the Gag Lab, where she rushed inside and looked around. She made her way to the wall beside the entrance to flip on the light.

"Whoa." Chris-Alice gaped as the lights flared to life, shining on the sterile steel floors and tables that lay around the room in perfect order, as if untouched by the chaos outside. Lab Rat didn't seem to be here. Was he infected just like the others? Was he out there, flying around with them? "This place is yours?"

"Not exactly, it belongs to my friend…" Abby looked worriedly around the room, then shook her head with a soft sigh. "Come on, we should start looking for a cure. That's why we're here, after all." Abby made her way over to the desk and sat down in the rolling computer chair, pulling the keyboard up in front of her and cracking her knuckles. "Okay, let's see…" Her fingers poked at the keyboard, moving through the computer files, searching for anything that might be helpful.

Both of the redheads yelped in surprise when something white and furry leapt up on the desk in front of them. It took Abby a moment to realize who it was.

"Hermes!" Abby sighed and plucked the rodent off the desk, petting it lightly. "Hey, glad to see you're still around. Lab Rat would probably lose it if you were gone when he got back."

"Who said I left?" A deep voice spoke from behind them. Both girls whirled, then leapt up into fighting stances, facing a tall figure with midnight black hairs covering every inch of his body, and a pair of snow-white moth wings spreading from his shoulder blades. He raised his arms in front of him with a disarming smile. "Relax, I'm not with the goons upstairs."

"Lab Rat…?" Abby blinked and relaxed her guard slightly. "You're okay? How are you not under Insectiva's control?"

"I locked myself here in the Gag Lab when I realized what was happening… it's hard for pheromones to get to me under the ground." Lab Rat nodded. "I'm glad to see you made it Abby, and…" His eyes turned uncertainly to the second redhead.

"Oh, I'm Chris-Alice." Chris-Alice smiled brightly. "Nice to meet you." Lab Rat nodded courteously.

"Lab Rat…" Abby took a deep breath.

"Save it for later." Lab Rat told her. "The longer we spend talking the less likely we'll be able to put an end to this without anyone getting seriously hurt." Lab Rat moved past them, walking up to the massive monitor on the wall.

"Right…" Abby nodded slowly, then turned to watch him. "Have you found out anything about the transformations we can use?"

"Just that they take place at a base genetic level." Lab Rat gestured to the screen, which flared to life, displaying a schematic of a human body that slowly shifted to accommodate hairs and wings. "Studying my own genetic code for the last few days has given me a pretty good insight into just how this transformation works… though unfortunately, I still haven't found a way to reverse it."

"Drat." Abby muttered.

"We don't need to reverse it right away, though." Chris-Alice pointed out. "Everyone will be fine if we could just break Insectiva's control. Can we do that?"

"Aha." Lab Rat smiled and shook his finger at her. "You get an A. Yeah, that's exactly right, and I have indeed found a way to suppress the effects of these pheromones."

"Seriously!?" Abby clenched her fists. "Yes! I knew you could come through for us!"

"The downside is…" Lab Rat reached behind him and pulled out a single vial of liquid about the length of one of his fingers. "The stuff is super-concentrated, to the point where I only had enough materials to make enough suppressor for one dose." He approached Abby to hand it over to her. "We're going to have to be smart about how we use it."

"What if we gave it to Insectiva?" Chris-Alice suggested. "Would that stop her from being able to control people?"

"Afraid not, the pheromones are artificial." Lab Rat replied.

"Then we'll need to use it on someone who's close enough to Insectiva to bring her down from the inside… Creepie Creecher." Abby slipped the vial into her pocket.

"OH YES!" Chris-Alice jumped in excitement. "I like this plan! We're going to free Creepie! We're going to free Creepie!"

"That's right." Abby turned to Lab Rat. "We're going to need two Slime Suits and Goop Shooters, Lab Rat."

"Two?" Lab Rat blinked. "But Ty isn't here."

"I think the situation calls for us to make an exception." Abby slipped an arm around Chris-Alice's shoulders companionably. "How would you like to be an honorary Grossologist?"

"Sounds gross." Chris-Alice giggled playfully. "But if it means helping Creepie, I'll do anything."

"Good. Now let's get you suited up…"


	11. Surgical Strike

Chapter 11: Surgical Strike

It was actually a pretty nice ride, Skipper thought to himself as he looked out the window of the old Station Wagon as it rumbled its way down the interstate. The orange early morning rays of dawn were just peeking over the horizon, since they'd left early to try to make it back to Middlington as soon as possible. To make this possible, Regina had one of her servants driving them back home again… well, maybe that was a little harsh. The woman had practically jumped at the chance to help Regina get where she was going.

Regina was sitting beside Skipper in the middle row of seats, while the woman was in the front seat driving, and Ty and Regina's aid-girl Mary were in the back seat. As Skipper watched, Mary leaned forward in her seat, reaching over it to rub Regina's shoulders in a long-practiced manner. It was obvious she'd done this before.

"You're so tense, Your Highness." Mary noted.

"I'm fine." Regina brushed off the comment, but let her continue her work, her arms draped over her stomach on top of her poncho.

"So does everyone always act like this when they're around you?" Skipper gestured to Mary and the woman driving with each hand. "They just… throw themselves at your feet?"

"Usually." Regina nodded.

"Man, doesn't it ever get old? I mean sure, it might sound nice in theory, but really, it sounds like it would get really… boring. Not to mention whether they want to do it or not, it's kind of unfair to them." Skipper jerked his thumb toward Mary, who continued to obliviously massage her shoulders.

"I suppose so…" Regina looked back at Mary over her shoulder. "Why don't you sit down and rest a while, Mary?"

"What?" Mary blinked. "But… I'm sorry, was I doing it wrong?"

"No, you didn't do anything wrong. I just think you could use a little rest too. You went to bed after I did, and woke up before me."

"I knew you would want your morning honeycake."

"And I appreciate that." Regina groaned. "I just…" She looked up at the girl, who looked confused and hurt, as if asking her to relax was one of the worst things Regina could have done to her. Finally she sighed and turned to face toward the front of the car. "Oh, alright, fine, continue." Mary smiled and reached over to continue her massage.

Skipper whistled. "So you're not really an evil ruler, you're just spoiled beyond belief."

"Oh shut up." Regina grumbled. "Don't make me regret coming with you."

"Relax, we'll get this sort of thing taken care of." He jerked him thumb back to Mary. "Then we'll take it from there where you need to be going. Don't worry; I think this will all work out after all." He turned to look out the window again, though he wasn't smiling. He wanted to believe that, but who knew what would happen to Creepie before this was all over…

***

Two redheaded ponytailed girls stuck their heads up over the outer wall on the roof of Ringworm Middle School, their eyes now covered by green visors that sparkled dimply in the early morning light. Abby reached up to tap the side of her visor, her yellow Slime Suit fitting over her body like a second-skin as the visor zoomed in on a couple of the hybrids as they flew away from the school. None of them looked like the one she'd encountered in the water treatment plant, though they all did look similar to one-another.

Chris-Alice looked around with her, one hand rising to scratch at her chest, which was covered by a deep blue Slime Suit that didn't fit her quite as well as Abby's did, but fit well enough to serve its purpose. "I don't see Creepie around, and she could be anywhere." Chris-Alice moaned. "How are we ever going to find her? It's like trying to find one bee in an entire hive."

"Well, from what I saw, Creepie is like the general of Insectiva's army." Abby tapped the side of her visor to put it back to normal. "So if we make a big enough disturbance out here, she'll come to investigate."

"How do we do that?" Chris-Alice asked.

"It'll be simple… and actually a lot of fun." Abby grinned and turned away from the side of the roof, seeing Chris-Alice scratching at herself. "Are you okay?"

"It's this suit, it's kind of tight around the chest." Chris-Alice admitted.

"Sorry, it was made for a boy… it's actually Lab Rat's."

"Oh… ewe!" Chris-Alice screwed up her face and pulled at the suit. "Ewewewe!"

Abby chuckled. "Relax, his was the only suit that would fit you, and he never wears it anyway. You're more likely to find dust bunnies on it than germs."

"Well it's still too tight…" Chris-Alice unzipped the front of the Slime Suit down to her waist, revealing that she was still wearing her yellow T-shirt underneath. She breathed a sigh of relief and gave Abby a thumbs up. "Okay, ready to go."

"Come on, then. Let's have some fun with this." Abby grinned and turned to crawl towards the roof entrance, with Chris-Alice following smoothly behind her.

Minutes later an engine roared to life in the otherwise silent city streets. The creatures going about the morning's tasks began to look around in puzzlement for the source of the sound, moving towards it in a small group. Moments later they were greeted by the screech of tires and a motorcycle came roaring out of a nearby garage, with Abby at the controls, her fists clenched tightly around the handlebars. Behind her, clinging to the bike with her thighs, was Chris-Alice who raised both arms into the air, each concealed by a shining silver Goop Shooter.

Dark green goop shot from the two shooters on either direction, spraying onto the closest creatures, who were still watching in shock. They yelped and tried to take flight, but they couldn't leave the ground with their wings covered in the sticky substance. "You were right! This is fun!" Chris-Alice laughed and fired another blast of goop at a hybrid that got a little too close, the blast knocking it against the ground and pinning it there.

"Just hold on!" Abby gripped the handlebars tighter and slammed her foot down on the gas, sending the bike roaring down the street.

More creatures began to move in on them from the sky, realizing that something was amiss, but the shower from the Goop Shooters kept most of them at bay, and those who were brave enough to launch an attack found themselves plummeting from the sky with their wings covered in sticky goop. The bike continued to roar down the street, taking a turn down another road with the creatures swarming above them, struggling to keep pace with the fast motorcycle and avoid the Goop Shooter blasts at the same time.

They left a trail of Goop behind them, some bigger piles also occupied by struggling hybrids, but still Chris-Alice didn't see Creepie anywhere. Without warning a shape darted out from a van parked on the side of the road, kicking itself out into the open on all fours, then leaping at the bike like a feral tiger, one of its claws sweeping out for them. Abby managed to duck, but the claw caught Chris-Alice by the throat, yanking her off the bike and hurtling her straight up against the door of a parked car with a violent thump.

"Chris-Alice!" Chris-Alice faintly heard Abby yell from outside of the blurred haze of her vision. She raised her Goop Shooters up in front of her to defend herself, but she hesitated when her vision began to clear and she saw the violet form begin to take shape in front of her. The shooters were held at the ready, but she didn't fire, she couldn't fire.

"Creepie…" Chris-Alice breathed heavily as Creepie approached down the street. Without warning Creepie darted forward, her claws lashing out to grip the Goop Shooters and push them out to the sides. Her claws tightened on the weapons, digging into the metal as sparks flashed around her hands. Chris-Alice glanced down at the now-useless weapons, then up into Creepie's face as her mouth began to open. Sickeningly yellow venom dripped from her teeth as she leaned closer, her hot breath on Chris-Alice's face.

Her mind suddenly seemed to jump into gear, and Chris-Alice threw her head forward, slamming it into Creepie's face hard enough to knock her back, releasing the Goop Shooters. Chris-Alice hurled the two broken weapons at her, forcing her back further as Chris-Alice pushed herself up from the car, shaking in fear, but putting her hands up in front of her.

"I'm sorry for this, but I'm going to free you, Creepie." Chris-Alice shook her hands loose in front of her, getting ready. Creepie snarled dangerously and launched herself at Chris-Alice again, but this time she was ready.

Chris-Alice ducked under the slash in a spin, coming up on Creepie's other side and bringing one hand up, slamming her palm powerfully into her chest. Creepie stumbled back, and Chris-Alice pressed her advantage, moving after her. She spun on her heel and lashing out in a fierce backwards roundhouse kick that slammed into Creepie's chest so hard she actually spun back before landing on the ground with a heavy thud.

Chris-Alice rushed up to her, hoping to end this while she was down, but Creepie recovered almost instantly. She rolled to her feet and threw her whole body at Chris-Alice in a reckless tackle, grabbing her around the torso and flinging them both back against the side of one of the cars on the side of the road. Chris-Alice yelped in pain as her back slammed into the door with enough force to bend it inward. Her hands flew up to grab Creepie's head, holding it away from her chest as she tried to bite her fangs into Chris-Alice's flesh.

Desperately Chris-Alice brought her knee up into Creepie's gut, knocking the wind out of her and loosening her grip enough to shove her back with both arms. This time it was Chris-Alice who rammed into Creepie's chest full-on with her shoulder, lifting her off the ground and carrying her across the street into the side of a building. Chris-Alice stopped right before the impact, shoving Creepie against the wall and kicking off into the air, bringing her right leg around in an airborne roundhouse kick, but Creepie ducked under the blow just in time, letting it pass harmless through the air.

The unstopped force of her kick sent Chris-Alice spinning in the air, landing with her back to Creepie… a huge mistake. She felt her friend instantly grab her from behind. "Creepie, n-" Chris-Alice's plea was cut off by a pained gasp when she felt teeth sink into her shoulder, the venom instantly entering her body. "Creepie…" Panting in fear and desperation, Chris-Alice's hand fumbled into the pocket of her Slime Suit, finding the syringe they had filled with Lab Rat's pheromone antidote.

She could already feel the venom starting to take effect as she struggled to pop the top off with one rapidly numbing hand. The cap slid off the end of the needle and she spun it backwards in her palm, finding the strength to plunge it into Creepie's leg. Creepie screeched in pain at the surprise prick, but she managed to push the back of the syringe inward, emptying it into her leg before she reached down to bat it away.

"Please work…" Chris-Alice gulped as she fell back against Creepie, the venom taking hold moments later. "Please work… please be okay, Creepie…"

***

What… what was happening? She felt something heavy collapse against her, so she instinctively reached out to hold onto it, holding the mass against her chest as her head began to swirl, as if a tremendous fog had settled inside of her mind. She closed her eyes and leaned against the hard brick wall behind her, giving her head some time to clear out. It took a few minutes, but finally the fog began to lift, and she was able to think again, blinking against the rising sun that shined straight into her eyes, blinding her momentarily.

"What…?" Creepie looked down into her arms curiously, then gasped when she saw Chris-Alice leaning unconscious against her, bite marks on her shoulder that seemed to bleed red and yellow. "C-Chris-Alice!?" Creepie wrapped her arms around her good friend, trying to shake her awake. "Chris-Alice? What happened? Are you okay?" She panted, staring down at her. She wasn't waking up… had Creepie bitten her? Why?

She reached down to lift Chris-Alice gently into both arms, pushing away from the wall and walking further into onto the sidewalk. This place… wasn't Middlington, she realized in shock. The buildings were too big, the cars on the sides of the roads were too expensive, even the street sign on the corner nearby showed names that were unfamiliar to her. Her confusion only grew, and it scared her. She clutched Chris-Alice tighter to her chest, half to protect her, half to comfort her.

"Hey! Let go of her!" A voice yelled furiously from behind Creepie. She whirled, then managed to leap out of the way just in time to avoid a spinning kick from a girl with an ankle-length red ponytail wearing a canary yellow full-body suit, similar to the blue one Chris-Alice was wearing. "Put her down right now!"

Already spooked beyond belief with her heart pounding, Creepie instead flexed her gossamer wings and took off into the sky, kicking off the ground and shooting straight up. "Hey! Get back here! Bring her back! Chris-Alice!" The girl screamed after her, but Creepie didn't look back. She didn't know who this girl was, and she didn't care. She just wanted to get somewhere safe where she could figure this out, where she could wake up Chris-Alice and find out just what was going on here…

***

"Chris-Alice!" Abby ran after Creepie as far as she could, but the airborne bug-girl was way too fast for her to keep up with, and she soon vanished from sight over the tops of the nearby buildings. Finally Abby gave up, doubling over and sinking to her knees in the middle of the street, struggling to catch her breath with lungs that felt like they were on fire. "Damnit, damnit, damnit…" She heaved the swear words and clenched her fists on the ground. "I shouldn't have brought her with me, I never should have brought her…"

Her head shot up when she heard the sound of rapidly beating wings from somewhere further down the street. She'd managed to lose the crowd, but she knew they had to still be looking for her. Insectiva would have them looking for her and Ty, and it was unlikely they would let her go anywhere now that they'd found her. The bike she'd found had been trashed by the hoard. She couldn't give up though, she couldn't run… she had to find a way to end this, no matter what.

She stumbled as quickly to her feet as she could and turned to rush into the shadows between the buildings.


	12. Spider Girl Awakens

Chapter 12: Spider-Girl Awakens

Creepie ran the washrag under the faucet, dousing it in cold water and wringing it out before making her way back into the bedroom, where Chris-Alice lay on the thick king-sized bed, still unconscious among the luxurious sheets. She sat down carefully on the edge of the bed beside her and set the cold washcloth on her forehead. She had no idea if it would help speed up the recovery process, but she didn't know how to counter insect venom, even her own. So she did what she could to keep her comfortable and cool until the venom purged itself.

She also had no idea who this apartment had belonged to, and normally she wouldn't have claimed it, but it seemed like the entire city had been abandoned. So she didn't see anything wrong with staking a temporary claim on it until she knew what was going on. Besides, she didn't want to move Chris-Alice any more than necessary, just in case that made the paralysis worse. It had been hours, and the girl was still out cold… she was so stiff it was almost like she was dead…

Creepie pressed the washcloth down against her forehead, then turned away to look out the window. Occasionally she caught sight of shapes flying past, but she didn't dare approach the window for a better look. She didn't want any trouble, she didn't want a fight, she just wanted her friend to wake up and tell her she was okay.

She blinked when she felt something gently press down on her hand on the bed. She turned to look down at her friend, then smiled broadly when she saw Chris-Alice's eyes open, but tired-looking.

"Creepie…" Chris-Alice muttered and pulled on her arm, eventually pulling Creepie into a weak hug. "Creepie, you're okay… you're okay…"

"I'm fine…" Creepie let her friend hug her, even returning it briefly before sitting up again to look down at her face. "What's going on here, Chris-Alice? Where are we? What happened to you? How did we get here?"

"You don't remember?" Chris-Alice asked. "You've been missing for over a month… you were supposed to come home but you never came, we were so afraid…" She gulped and shook her head slightly, sniffling to fight back a wave of tears that threatened to overwhelm her. "Oh Creepie I'm just so glad you're okay…"

"An entire month…?" Creepie's eyes widened in shock. How could she possibly not know this? Where had her head been this entire time? How could she completely miss an entire month of her life?

"Yes, this woman who hates humanity has been using you to make an army of bug-people." Chris-Alice shivered slightly and, with a groan, managed to push her torso up off the bed. "Oohhh… arms are shaking."

"Take it easy, it might take a while for the venom to completely wear off." Creepie gently pushed her friend back against the headboard, making her rest. "Chris-Alice… did I do this to you?"

Chris-Alice looked at her, then nodded slightly. "You bit me… but it wasn't your fault. It was Insectiva and her pheromones."

"Insectiva? Pheromones?" Creepie blinked.

"I think I should explain everything from the beginning…" Chris-Alice took a deep breath, and started to tell her everything that had happened.

***

"Ah, back here again." Regina allowed herself a slight smirk as the 'Welcome to Middlington' sign passed by outside the window. "This is probably the first time I've ever been back to a town I've lived before."

"I can see why." Skipper spoke from beside her, watching as they passed the first row of buildings on the edge of town. "Not that this is a bad place to live, but if I had your unique… problems… I'd probably try to keep looking to the future too."

"She has no problems!" Mary snapped from the seat behind them. "You take that back right this instant!"

Regina sighed. "Mary, please…"

"Relax, I take it back. You have my sincerest apologies, your highness." Skipper took her hand and gave it a dramatic kiss. Regina blushed slightly, but it seemed to satisfy Mary, who fell back into the back seat beside Ty, who looked incredibly bored having no one to talk to but the girl who was too busy fawning to carry on a conversation.

"Here, take us to this address." Skipper leaned forward to hand the driver a slip of paper, then leaned back as the car rumbled through traffic towards their destination.

Regina looked out the window again, watching the terrain pass while people went about their daily lives. It was actually kind of interesting watching them, she realized. They didn't look very peaceful, she thought to herself. In fact many of them looked downright stressed out or angry, but it was an interesting thing to see. It was something she hadn't seen much of back in Beehive, where everyone's only concern was in giving her whatever she wanted. This place seemed disorganized and kind of disgusting compared to her home but… it intrigued her.

They soon reached a small, regular looking home nestle among dozens of similar homes. Regina climbed out of the car and looked up at the building curiously. She had assumed if this woman they were coming to meet was important to their efforts to save the country, or the world, that she would live somewhere a bit grander. She wasn't sure how a woman who lived in a tiny hovel was going to be any help at all.

"Come on, Maria is definitely going to want to meet you as soon as possible." Skipper looked back at the car as Regina and Ty moved to join him on the lawn. Mary was moving to join them as well, but he held up his hand. "Hey, why don't you and your mom… um…"

"Go get us something to eat." Regina nodded. "I'm really hungry."

"Oh no! Of course, your highness! We'll be back as soon as possible!" Mary leapt back into the car and it pulled away from the curb, racing down the street away from them.

"Nice." Ty grinned a bit goofily. "You're pretty… smart, pretty smart."

Regina and Skipper both rolled their eyes and approached the door, ignoring Ty, who was clearly very affected by Regina's pheromone levels. The two of them reached forward to knock on the door at the same time, then exchanged a humorous glance and stepped back to wait.

Maria opened the door after a few moments, her eyes shifting across them before locking on Regina with a strange expression on her face. "Well hello there." She stepped out of the house and extended her hand. "I presume you are the girl they went searching for."

"Regina Beesley." Regina took the woman's hand in a firm shake. "A pleasure."

"Y-yes, it is…" Maria actually blushed slightly, then blinked and shook her head. "You're the one they were looking for all right."

"Glad we have that established." Regina stepped past her, heading inside without waiting for an invitation. Skipper and Ty followed her inside, so Maria could close the door behind them and join them in the living room.

Regina plopped down on the end of the couch to rest after the long drive, leaning her head back on the thick cushion and letting her body go limp. "So what am I doing here, exactly? Why did you want to find me?"

"Quite simply, it's your… attractiveness, that we need right now." Maria told her bluntly. She went on to tell her everything that had happened, and was happening. Regina listened calmly, leaning her elbow against the arm of the sofa with a focused look on her face. Her eyes only twitched slightly when Skipper sat beside her on the sofa, watching her take in what the older woman was telling her. They wanted to use her ability to control others to put an end to what just could be a takeover of the country, if not the planet…

Regina didn't speak for a while after Maria had finished her explanation, rubbing her cheek idly with one finger and staring down at the carpet. "Regina?" Maria spoke first in a soft voice. "What are you thinking, Regina?"

"What if my 'pheromones' as you call them aren't strong enough?" Regina asked. "What if I can't overpower them? What happens to me after I put myself out there?"

Skipper and Maria exchanged a quick glance, though it was Maria who spoke. "If the swarm remains under Insectiva's control… there's a very good chance that things will turn dangerous." Maria said truthfully, meeting Regina's stare with one of her own. "We'll be there with you, but their numbers are growing every day as she moves across the country, infecting towns with her mutagen. They'll easily outnumber us over a thousand to one."

"So I'll be dead. Does that about sum it up?" Regina asked.

"Possibly." Maria nodded. Skipper bit his lip and turned back to Regina, who fell silent for a while longer. "I can't make you do it Regina, it's far too dangerous for that. All I can do is ask, and tell you that this is the only plan we've come up with so far that couldn't possibly result in these innocent people getting hurt. We can't even go to the authorities and tell them what's going on or they would destroy the army head-on."

Regina still remained silently staring at the carpet, until she felt a gentle touch on her bare knee. She glanced down the sofa at Skipper, who was squeezing her knee with an intense look on his face. "We have to do something, Regina. Please. We have to."

Regina stared at him a while longer, then finally nodded and looked up at Maria. "Okay… I'll try it… on one condition."

"Anything you want." Maria told her.

"When this is all over, when this crazy woman is taken down… I want these pheromones removed from my body."

"Oh?" Maria raised her eyebrow.

"I'm sick of everyone being my pawns…" Regina looked at Skipper again, seeing his soft, encouraging smile urging her onward. "I don't want pawns anymore… I want friends."

Maria smiled slightly. "I'll see what I can do. For now, we should try to figure out just how we're going to do this…"

***

There were so many insect hybrids around that the city hall looked more like a beehive than a human structure. They were flitting back and forth from the building, taking off around the city on some sort of patrols that must have been guarding against intruders. Moving around the city had proven even more difficult than before now that they knew she was here, but Abby wasn't willing to lie down and give up. She had come here for a reason, and she would stop Insectiva even if it meant going in through the front door and doing it the hard way.

She slipped through the shadows between the buildings, halting whenever she saw the shadow of the hybrids outlined against the sun, which was by now moving down towards the Western horizon. Her visor flashed in front of her face, outlining every hybrid that passed by the alley she crept down, making her way toward one of the windows high up in the wall. She waited until her visor was clear before running at the wall, kicking herself upward and leaping with all her strength toward the window, only to catch it with the tips of her fingers.

With a grunt she pulled herself up, then dropped silently into the building and darted behind a nearby pillar. The sound of buzzing was magnified by the massive empty room, so loud it was nearly deafening as the hybrids swept in and out of the room directly ahead, which must have been the room Insectiva was using as her base of operations now that she had control of the city. Unfortunately, Abby didn't see any entrance except for the lone door through which the bugs were moving.

She moved to sneak towards the door, then ducked back behind the pillar and froze when she saw a shadow approaching from inside the room, accompanied by a high, crackling voice that broke into laughter.

"I can't believe it's finally happening, my children." Insectiva's laugh echoed above the steady hum of the creatures' wings as she emerged from the back room, her hands resting on two of the smaller creatures, who walked calmly alongside her. "Soon the world will change, and we will all be free of the human oppression that has destroyed and disrupted insectkind since the beginning. We are so close now I can already taste it, and you, my beautiful children, will be the ones to take us into that bright future."

She stopped at the exit and looked around at her children, her eyes narrowing as her expression soured. "Wait a moment… Creepie should have returned from her hunt by now." She growled and moved to the door, looking outside with a suspicious expression on her face. "Something is wrong… we must find her, my children. We must protect our own at all costs!" She left the building surrounded by her hybrids, whose buzzing vanished outside the doorway almost instantly.

"Hey!" Abby charged after her, but by the time she reached the door, Insectiva and her troupe had already vanished into the sky. Her eyes widened when she realized Insectiva was riding something… something massive, with blood red eyes and a sharp needle pointing out from its face. Creepie hadn't come back…? What was going on here?


	13. For Peace and Power

Chapter 13: For Peace and Power

"I can't believe all of this…" Creepie shook her head, staring numbly out the window to watch the sun fall slowly towards the horizon again. She and Chris-Alice had spent the entire day talking, while Chris-Alice filled her in on what had been happening. It was so hard to believe. It was so big, it could very well change the world as they knew it. Creepie never imagined she could be involved in something like this, but she knew her friend wouldn't lie to her. It had to be true… the only question was what she could possibly do about it.

"I know, I've actually SEEN the other you's, and I barely believe it myself!" Chris-Alice was standing by now, the venom having long since worn off. "It's like something out of one of those History books, an evil dictator trying to take over the world… it's scary!"

"And she's been using me to do it…" Creepie shivered and hugged herself around the stomach uncomfortably. "I feel so dirty… I want to go home…"

Chris-Alice walked up behind her and put her hands on her shoulders comfortingly. "Yeah, maybe we should just get out of here and let someone else handle it… neither of us is really cut out for this sort of thing." She squeezed Creepie's shoulder and turned to lead her toward the door. "We can go home and tell everyone you're okay. I'm sure the others can handle the rest from here, Insectiva won't stand a chance." She smiled and led Creepie out of the room, making her way to the stairs that led down to the street.

They emerged into the sunlight to find the area had seemingly been abandoned. It was completely empty except for the two of them when they emerged and walked out into the street, looking around for anything suspicious.

"Come on, we can walk to the next town, and get a ride from there. It's just a few hours away… and we should leave as soon as we can." Chris-Alice took Creepie's hand in a gentle grip and turned to head down the street, guiding her along since she wasn't moving much on her own. Creepie really just felt numb, at the moment. She was still trying to wrap her mind around all of this, and it was proving very difficult. Her troubles with the Rembrandt Corporation seemed so small and insignificant compared to this.

"Wait!" Chris-Alice stopped suddenly, looking up at the sky. "Quick, hide!" She yanked Creepie behind her as she charged for a nearby alley, ducking behind the wall and pressing her back flat against it. She leaned forward slowly to peer out around the corner of the alley. Past her head, Creepie could see numerous large shadows passing by on the street.

"It's her… she's on the move. It looks like they all are." Chris-Alice leaned back again. "I wonder where they're going… oh well, if they're leaving, that makes it easier for us to get home." She smiled warmly and squeezed Creepie's hand.

Creepie returned the smile numbly, then jumped when she heard a sharp buzzing noise hovering around her head. She looked up curiously, her eyes finally spotting a tiny hairy dot floating in place right in front of her nose. She blinked when her eyes finally managed to focus on it. "Gnat? Is that you?" She smiled and reached up to let him rest on her palm, but instead he took off like a bullet, right past Chris-Alice's head into the street. "Gnat! Don't-"

"Creepie here! Creepie here!" Gnat screamed as he darted straight up towards the hybrids flying overhead. They all stopped to whirl towards them, their eyes shifting towards the alley.

"Oohhhh fudgepepper…" Chris-Alice whimpered, her hand squeezing Creepie's hand even tighter as the two girls looked up at the swarm of insects looking down at them. She whirled back into the alley, turning on Creepie. "Creepie, you have to get out of here. Find Abby, she'll be able to help you get home, she has to be somewhere in this city."

"What? Who's Abby? What are you going to do?" Creepie stared at her in surprise, uncomprehending for a few moments.

"She's a friend, she has red hair and a yellow full-body suit like this one. Trust me, she's hard to miss! Now go!" Chris-Alice shoved Creepie roughly towards the other side of the alley as the shadows loomed larger against the street in front of them.

"What about you!?" Creepie exclaimed.

"I'm not letting them hurt you anymore Creepie! Now get out of here!" Chris-Alice whirled around toward the street as the first few hybrids began to land. They had barely touched ground before Chris-Alice flung herself at them like a berserker, leaping into the air and bringing both fists down in a vicious hammer that sent one hybrid to the ground instantly.

Creepie grunted for a moment, watching the swarm converge on her friend like a wall of living bodies. Her mind raced with questions, but her heart pounding with fear drove her into action, and she ran. She ran down the alley until she reached the other side, where her wings began to beat like never before, sending her hurtling through the air down the street like a violet bullet. The wind rushing in her ears was the only thing she could hear as she flew, hovering just over the line of buildings. She must have raced halfway across the city before her back began to ache from the strain and she was forced to land.

She landed roughly on the roof of a building, skidding on her feet for a moment before tumbling to her knees, panting in exhaustion with her head hanging down. She barely had time to catch her breath before she heard the sound of wingbeats. It wasn't the army she had feared though, it was just one massive, deep set that hovered closer until she could feel a powerful breeze drifting over her back. She looked over her shoulder, then spun so fast she fell to her butt on the roof.

Right behind her a massive insect, easily double the size of a man, was just furling its wings, standing on the roof. It stared down at her with blood red eyes atop a pointed nose, hunched over to stand on wings and legs like a bat. Creepie knew instantly what kind of bug it was… in fact, she knew instantly that it was a particular bug, though she could barely believe it. "D-dad…" Creepie muttered, staring up at the massive mosquito.

"Where are you going, child?" Creepie's gaze was drawn away from her father's eyes to the woman who seemed to be riding on top of him with a broad smile on her face. She clung to his back with practiced ease, staying perfectly mounted no matter how much he shifted. "Why would you run away from your family?"

"I…" Creepie looked down at her dad again, then up at the woman. "I was trying to get back to my family… but…"

"Why my dear, we are your family." The woman's smile stayed in place as she gestured to herself. "No bugs nor humans could ever truly accept you as one of their own, surely you know this. Humans could barely accept one-another, let alone another, superior, species such as insects. Together however…" She closed her eyes blissfully. "Together we can turn this world into one of peace, that is what we have been working towards for this last long month, planning, preparing, and finally it has begun to come together."

"A world of peace…?" Creepie climbed to her feet slowly.

"Yes. Where bugs need not fear the heartless, mindless ravages of mankind. Where they can take their rightful place as the true rulers of this planet." The woman opened her eyes and looked down at Creeipe again. "I know you've seen how the humans 'care' about those creatures different from themselves. Well now, they will be a part of them, we will all be one, and there will be no more mindless bloodshed."

It sounded so good, Creepie had to admit. She'd thought about these same dreams many times, of a day when she wouldn't have to protect her family from humans… but something still seemed wrong. Creepie looked down at her father, staring into his eyes. They were the same eyes she'd known since childhood, yet… they seemed distant, unfocused. Like he was still there, but his mind had been pushed aside, taken over. Then the things Chris-Alice had told her about what happened to Creepie came back to mind as well…

"You talk about wanting peace, Insectiva…" Creepie gestured to her father. "Is this the peace you're talking about? Control?"

"That is a temporary measure, I assure you." Insectiva smiled.

"Was your control over me going to be temporary too?" Creepie narrowed her eyes.

"Of course. I needed you, Creepie, every insect on the face of the planet needed you, the entire world needed you." Insectiva's smile faded, suddenly growing serious. "Perhaps I was wrong to use my pheromones on you, but surely now that you've seen what I am striving towards, the world I am trying to create, you will see why I needed you and why you should come with me, child… my precious child."

"I see what you're trying to do…" Creepie closed her eyes. "I wish I could believe you were just trying to make things better for bugs, that would be a dream come true… but I don't." Creepie opened her eyes again, standing up straight and clenching her fists in defiance. "You may be trying to make things better for bugs… but you're also trying to crown yourself the queen, take control of everything, of everyone. You're trying to take away their free will and that isn't right. I am not your child, and I will not help you take over the world. Now release my family and friends, and stop this!"

Insectiva heaved a genuine sigh and shook her head, giving Creepie a sad look for a brief moment before speaking. "You have no idea how much you've meant to me Creepie… you gave me hope when I was ready to give up my mission in life… but I'm afraid progress, evolution, does not take kindly to those who would stand against it." The mosquito shifted onto his hind legs, his wings spreading out against the fiery orange sun behind him, then suddenly lurched forward, his needle-like nose shooting straight towards her.

Creepie threw herself straight back, right off the edge of the roof to let the needle slam into the corner of the building hard enough to send a chunk of it spinning out into the open air. Her wings beat to life and she spun in the air, taking off away from the building like a shot, but the mosquito's massive wings easily carried it and Insectiva after her in hot pursuit.

"There's no escape from progress, Creepie, not even for you!" Insectiva shouted over the roar of the wind.

"And there's no fitting through narrow spaces for you, Insectiva!" Creepie shot back acidly and turned straight toward the ground in a full-speed nosedive. She reached a tight alleyway and spun herself upright again, looking up in time to see her father slam into the narrow alley, his legs cracking both of the buildings around her, unable to pursue her any further. She could see Insectiva peering over his head down at her, her lip curling in a snarl.

"Think about this, Creepie. Most of the people in this world NEED to be controlled, that is the only way peace can ever exist! If you truly believe that humans will ever be able to accept the insect race as equals, then you are still an idealistic young fool!" Insectiva shouted.

"Maybe people won't ever listen, maybe a lot of people will always hate bugs… maybe a lot of people will always hate ME… but there are still people who do respect life, and who do like me." Creepie clenched her fists and growled. "You are nothing but a conqueror Insectiva, and I won't let you get away with what you've done! NOBODY messes with my FAMILY!" With that Creepie whirled in the air and threw herself into the window of the building right beside her. She heard her father's legs scrambling on top of the building to keep up with her, but she whirled and took off back the way she came, vanishing into the other building and moving from building to building rapidly away from her, making sure to change direction and avoid pursuit.

The sound of her father tramping along the rooftops faded into the distance behind her as she moved from window to window with the smoothness of a needle being threaded through cloth. Her blood was boiling now, she couldn't believe what she'd just seen. Her own father at the mercy of some psychopath bent on world domination. She had wanted to go home… but now she couldn't. She owed it to him, and she owed it to Chris-Alice, to do whatever she could to help.

"Now, where was this 'Abby' person…?" She asked herself softly, turning to begin her search. Chris-Alice had said she could help… it seemed like as good a place as any to begin.

***

Chris-Alice groaned in pain, her chest heaving to try to draw in air that it desperately needed. It felt like even her lungs were bruised… oh well, she didn't mind so much. As long as Creepie was safe and free that was what mattered, she thought to herself with a smalls mile. The smile got plenty of strange looks from the creatures who held onto her, at least two of them holding each of her limbs so tightly that she felt like a marionette dangling from a string, unable to move on her own in a strange spread-open position.

"You…" She lifted her eyes from the ground at the sound of an old woman's voice, harsh and crackling. The voice came with the sound of beating insect wings, as a massive mosquito touched down in front of her, settling on the ground and allowing the woman on its back to dismount with the ease of very long practice. The woman marched up to her with an angry snarl. "You're responsible for this, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh." Chris-Alice nodded with a smile. "It was me."

"You humans are all the same!" Insectiva screamed in anger. "You're selfish and arrogant! How dare you take one of my precious children from me!?"

"Guess I'm just another human then… always treasuring my friends and wanting them to be free. You're right, I'm a jerk." Chris-Alice chided herself.

Insectiva did not seem amused, her eyes glancing down a moment before fixating on her suit. "Hello… what have we here…" She reached down with one hand and gripped the front of her zipper, slowly pulling it up her torso. The suit zipped up the front up to her neck bit by bit, until the suit fully closed and Insectiva gasped in pleasant surprise. "You're a Grossologist?"

"N-not really…" Chris-Alice stuttered.

"Now don't be so modest, my dear." Insectiva grinned. "I could always use more Grossologist bait, especially since it seems my last trap didn't get rid of them." She turned to march away from them, making a swift gesture towards the hybrids, who began to follow, still carrying Chris-Alice in their vice-like grips. "Come, my children, our stay in this pathetic city is over. It's time to move to a place more fitting for the next rulers of the planet."

Chris-Alice didn't bother struggling, she couldn't escape in the middle of this huge crowd anyway. She just hoped Creepie had gotten as far away as possible…


	14. Declaration of War

Chapter 14: Declaration of War

Creepie darted from shadow to shadow, making sure to avoid being out in the light of the setting sun any longer than necessary. Her wings carried her through the city quickly and quietly, keeping even the sound of her bare feet padding across the cement from being heard. The last thing she wanted was to be caught, but after several hours of searching and allowing her nerves to calm down, she began to notice something… the city was abandoned again.

She paused in the middle of the street, looking around curiously. She had figured Insectiva would still be searching for her, but she couldn't hear anything besides the sound of her own wings buzzing lightly in the air behind her. She didn't see any shadows, any shapes… nothing moved or breathed around her. She was completely alone in this city… with no idea where she was or where to even begin looking for her family and friends…

She started to panic a little bit, but she didn't have time to really freak out. Something slammed into her from behind, shoving her forward across the street to slam her face-first into the brick wall of a nearby building. Creepie grunted in pain and struggled to get free, but a pair of hands had her in a vice-like grip, holding her roughly against the wall.

"Alright, you have three seconds to tell me where you've taken Chris-Alice!" A sharp, angry voice spoke from behind her head. It was familiar though… wait, it was the girl who had attacked her when she'd first woken up. "One… two…"

"Wait!" Creepie exclaimed quickly. "Wait, I'm not under Insectiva's control anymore… I'm okay…"

"How do I know that?" The girl demanded.

"If I was still with her, I wouldn't be alone." Creepie replied reasonably. She felt the girl's grip on her arm loosen slightly. "I swear, I'm not with Insectiva anymore… Chris-Alice freed me, and she told me to find a girl named Abby. She said she could help me."

The girl released her arm, allowing Creepie to turn and get a good look at her. It was the girl with the long ponytail and the yellow jumpsuit who had attacked her earlier in the day. Of course, Creepie thought. She'd been trying to help Chris-Alice…

"She was right." Abby crossed her arms over her stomach, looking Creepie up and down with a curious gaze. "Just depends what you want me to help you do."

"Stop Insectiva." Creepie replied instantly. "Free my family, save Chris-Alice, save the world."

Abby's eyes widened slightly. "Chris-Alice? What happened to her?"

"I'm sorry…" Creepie shook her head. "They got her… she let them take her to give me a chance to find you." Abby muttered something that sounded like a curse word under her breath. "What are we supposed to do from here? We don't know where Insectiva went, she could have gone anywhere by now."

"Then maybe it's about time to fall back and regroup." Abby reached into the pocket of her suit and pulled out a small cell phone. "We've been working with a woman named Maria Suarez… I'm given to understand that you know her."

"Maria?" Creepie smiled slightly. "Yeah, I do. I'd love to see her again." She gasped when Abby tossed her the cell phone, forcing her to snap out and grab it in a blur of sudden motion.

"Nice reflexes." Abby noted. "You know, you'd make a great fighter with some training."

"I don't really like fighting much." Creepie opened the top of the cell phone and dialed Maria's number swiftly. Abby gestured for her to follow and turned to walk down the street, so Creepie went with her, walking while she listened to the ringtone in the receiver of the phone. "Come on Maria… pick up… we need some guidance here."

She gasped softly when she heard someone pick up on the other end, and a boy's voice came back over the receiver instead. "Maria Suarez' residence." Creepie was stunned for a moment, she hadn't expected the familiar voice of her boyfriend Skipper. He was there too… she could see him again. It felt like it had been a lifetime since she'd so much as looked at him. "Hello? If this is a joke I'm not laughing right now. We're busy."

"Skipper… it's me." Creepie smiled slightly into the receiver. "It's Creepie."

There was silence for a few moments before he spoke again. "Creepie? Seriously? Oh my- I can't believe it. How did you get free? What's going on?"

"Chris-Alice freed me, but this woman named… well, I guess you already know what's been going on." Creepie shook her head. "I feel like I'm still waking up from the longest nap in the world."

"Having your brain overloaded with enough pheromones to shut down several higher brain functions for a month will do that to you." Skipper told her. "Try to relax, you'll feel better as they get used to working again."

"I can't relax. Insectiva took Chris-Alice and bolted out of town. She's manipulating my family… even my dad and Gnat are working for her."

Skipper was silent, or perhaps he was speaking away from the phone, because he returned a moment later. "I'm sorry to hear that Creepie, but getting yourself hurt won't help anyone. Please, come back to Middlington and tell us everything that happened. Maria wants to see you too."

Creepie glanced over at Abby, who was walking idly with her hands clasped behind her back. "I want to see you guys too…" She nodded. "Okay, we're going to come back."

"We?" Skipper asked.

"I'm with a girl named Abby, Chris-Alice said I could trust her." Creepie replied.

Skipper laughed lightly. "So that's where she went… yeah, I bet her brother will be glad to hear she'd okay too. Just get back here as fast as you can."

"We'll be there soon…" Creepie gripped the mouthpiece of the phone to hide it from Abby, whispering into it. "I missed you."

"Yeah… I missed you too." Skipper whispered back, affirming Creepie's suspicion that someone was still in the room with him. "Hurry back, Creepie… we'll be waiting." Creepie smiled behind her hand as the phone hung up, allowing her to lower it down in front of her, giving it a long look and a sigh.

"How far is it back to Middlington from here?" Creepie asked as she returned the phone.

"It won't be that long if we take extreme advantage of the situation…" Abby raised one eyebrow and glanced to the side of the street, where the cars lay parked in a row in front of the sidewalk.

***

The nighttime fell with nary a word, with nary a warning of what was coming with the darkness. The happy little people went on with their happy little lives, dressing for the night and eating their dinner like they always did, safe and content within their routines and habits. There was no way they could see the swarm coming inside the darkness, their beating wings didn't give them away as they swept silently into the city like an army of ghosts… then struck without mercy.

"Wh… why…" Chris-Alice's eyes widened as she looked down over the small town from the back of Creepie's father, unable to escape without simply leaping off of the bug and plummeting to her death. Nor could she dislodge Insectiva from its back, and so she was along for the ride, helpless to stop the horror she saw below. "I thought you wanted to change humanity, not… not…"

"Most of humanity doesn't deserve to be changed, they don't deserve to become a greater being." Insectiva cackled at the show, rubbing her hands together. "Besides, this will force your Grossologist companions into quick action, along with showing the world the consequences of defying this evolutionary step. It's a win-win for me, really."

"But those people…" Chris-Alice stared down at the town in horror, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes. She was too far, and it was too dark to see exactly what was going on… but the screams were unmistakable.

"Deserve this for their arrogance and self-righteousness." Insectiva reached forward, clamping the back of Chris-Alice's head with one hand and pushing her face further down towards the town, as if forcing her to watch what was happening. "You think this is going too far? How many hundreds… thousands… millions of bugs have each of these people destroyed in their lives? With no remorse or sympathy, without even any acknowledgement of their existence. Not a single one of them is without guilt. Let them burn for what they've done, it is what they've earned."

Chris-Alice squeezed her eyes shut, unable to watch anymore. "And who are you to judge them…?" Her voice quivered as she spoke, desperately clinging to anything she could find to convince her not to do this. "Why is this YOUR place?"

"Because someone has to." Insectiva pulled her back up and shoved her down onto the massive mosquito's back, letting her shiver there as she grinned and looked down from the bug's back once again, listening to the screams emanating from below. "This is the future of the human race." She glanced up at Chris-Alice with a slight smirk on her lips. "Do you have nothing left to say?"

Chris-Alice didn't respond, she didn't want to acknowledge her or what was happening. She didn't want to hear the screams, she didn't want to think, she didn't even want to exist at that moment. She just wanted it all to end…

***

"What we're seeing here is unbelievable-" "-some sort of monstrous insects in this small town-" "Scientists have no idea what could be responsible for the creation of these creatures-" "some people are even using the term 'genocide' to describe the grizzly scene here where authorities are struggling to restore some semblance of order among those few survivors to be found among the wreckage. Sources say the attack came without warning and-" Regina tuned out the news anchors while Maria flipped through the channels beside her.

"Oh my God…" Ty muttered under his breath from the chair beside the sofa. "Insectiva's always hated the human race, but I can't believe she's taking it this far. I was sure she'd try to mutate everyone, not…"

"Then it would seem you made at least one mistake… you underestimated your enemy." Maria turned down the TV, so that the only sound in the room was the soft ticking of the clock that hung on the wall over the sofa. "Things are getting worse by the second. Once the government realizes that they're facing an organized army, they'll respond with force. This could mean a full-scale war in the center of the country."

"Hundreds of innocent people would die…" Skipper shuddered. "Even more hurt… what are we supposed to do about it, though? Insectiva's army has gotten too big, we can't even get close to her now without going through those things ourselves, and that was if we knew where she was."

"We continue with our original plan, I suppose…" Maria looked down at Regina. "We'll just have to speed things up a bit… it'll be reckless, but sometimes caution must be thrown to the wind when the stakes are raised. If it works, it won't matter how many there are, they'll fall under her control regardless."

"If it doesn't work…" Skipper trailed off.

Regina stood up suddenly, pushing herself off the sofa and climbing to her feet. "I know the risk, thank you, and I already agreed to it." She spoke without looking at anyone, her eyes fixed on the carpet in front of her. "What we need now is to know where she's hiding."

"Good point…" Maria nodded. "Now that she's made her existence and intentions known to the world, she won't be hiding in plain sight anymore." She sighed and shook her head. "Creepie said she left her hometown, which means she must be hiding either in another town or out in the countryside somewhere… and knowing how insects work, she could even be hiding underground where satellites couldn't find her."

Silence fell over the room when the static took over the TV screen, only to be replaced moments later by a wrinkled face with thick black lips curled up into a pleased smile. "Attention humanity." Her lips split into a grin. "Then again, I suppose I already have your attention, don't I?" She laughed enthusiastically at her own joke. "If you think what has happened tonight is the end, think again. What you have seen tonight is merely the beginning of the evolutionary revolution… and anyone who attempts to fight from here on out will suffer the same fate."

"Oh yes… and I have one more special message for any Grossologists who may be watching…" She reached in front of her and yanked a girl in front of the camera by her hair with a firm grip. Everyone in the room gasped when Chris-Alice appeared on the screen with a look of pain on her face from having her hair pulled. There were tear-streaks on her cheeks as well, her arms dangling against her sides as if in defeat. "Your friend is waiting, ehahahahahaHAHAHAHA!" Insectiva's laughter was cut off as the news anchor who had been on the screen before reappeared once again.

"Chris-Alice…" Skipper muttered under his breath, looking around the room in shock.

"She's baiting us…" Maria looked around the room at the teenagers scattered around her, then settled her gaze on Regina. "But she doesn't know what all we have at our disposal… that will be our advantage."

Regina didn't respond, her eyes focused on the floor now. She'd never felt RESPONSIBLE for anything before. She felt like she was going to pass out… oh wait, she was passing out…

Thump.


	15. The Queen's Mission

Chapter 15: The Queen's Mission

"Wake up!" Abby's eyes shot open when she heard a yell from the passenger's seat of her car, and she barely yanked the wheel back towards the road in time to avoid riding straight into the open field that surrounded them on both sides. "Geeze, I thought you knew what you were doing." Creepie growled under her breath as she lifted both hands to her chest to try to slow her beating heart.

Abby glanced over at her with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I do, really! It's just late and I'm tired…" Abby yawned into one hand. The silver moon was high in the sky, shining down on the beat up old car they had taken from the side of the road. Neither of them liked the idea of stealing, but it was for a good cause, and its owner was probably a member of Insectiva's army right now anyway. They could return it after the current crisis was over.

Creepie couldn't suppress a yawn of her own, though she tried her hardest. "Maybe we should park it for a while and get some sleep then… we're not going to be able to help anyone if we run off the road and die."

"Yeah, I guess you have a point… but we can't just stop in the middle of the road, can we?" Abby asked.

"Pull over to the side. It's not like anyone's going to that ghost town right now, anyway." Creepie suggested. Abby nodded and pulled the car over to the side, bringing it to a rumbling stop and putting it in park before turning off the ignition and leaning back in her seat.

Abby yawned again and let her head loll to one side. "Geeze… I didn't even realize how tired I was… it has been a long day, though…"

"I don't even remember most of it, and I know I'm exhausted." Creepie yawned with her, reaching down to pull the lever on her seat so it would lean all the way back. It was a bit cold in here, but they didn't have any blankets, and would have to make do with what little protection the car gave them against the cold. She curled herself up into as tight a ball as she could manage to ward off the nighttime chill, her eyes closing and almost instantly plunging her into a deep sleep.

***

"Nnghugh…" Regina grunted and opened her eyes slowly, blinking against the bright orange light that filtered in through the window. The room looked blurred when her eyes fully opened, until a few moments later when they finally began to adjust, revealing that she was lying in a bedroom in what was presumably still Maria's house in Middlington. She sat up slowly, feeling the gentle breeze flowing in through the window over her bare arms and brushing against her wings… wait…

She blinked and looked back in surprise, realizing that though she was still properly dressed in her leotard and skirt, her poncho was gone. Her back straightened instantly and she moved to look around the room for it, crawling around the bed on her hands and knees almost desperately. She dove under the blankets, digging through them, then poked her head out of the opposite end of the blankets and peered down underneath the bed, but she couldn't find it anywhere.

"You okay?" Regina squeaked when she heard Skipper speak from the door of the bedroom.

She slipped back under the covers, scooting back up to the top and poking her head out from under the blankets with a disarming smile, keeping herself covered from the neck down. "I'm fine, just fine, just… wondering where my poncho went."

"We thought you would sleep better without it, then Maria thought it would be a good idea to wash it for you." Skipper told her.

"Oh…" Regina blinked, then forced another smile. "Okay, then… let me know when it's finished washing. I think I'm tired for now, hoo boy." She stretched out under the blankets, but Skipper didn't seem to be buying her ruse. "Really… really tired."

"Regina, you don't have to do this." Skipper shook his head and walked up to the side of the bed.

"This? What?" Regina smiled innocently.

"Nobody here cares about how you look." Skipper gave her a comforting smile. "Trust me, we've gotten used to that sort of thing around here."

Regina raised her voice in a firm, authoritative tone. "I don't want anyone to see me… like…" She trailed off when he continued to look at her with those gentle, understanding eyes. Why did he have to be so bloody gentle and cute? "I'm just not comfortable being poncholess around people…" She looked down. "Every time it's happened outside of Beehive, I was chased out of the town by the people there."

Skipper chuckled. "Trust me, nobody's chasing you out of here. We're all used to this sort of thing with Creepie around."

"Creepie?" Regina blinked. "She wasn't THAT weird… I mean, her head's rather large but besides that…"

Skipper laughed with an enigmatic smile on his face, but didn't elaborate any further on that, instead holding his hand out to her. "Come on, we've been waiting for you to get up. We think we have a way to figure out where Insectiva's hiding, but we can't do anything without you."

Regina looked down at his hand with a somewhat uncertain look, then looked up at his face again as she slowly pushed the blanket down to her waist and sat up, watching his eyes for any sign of surprise or anger. He didn't display anything, instead just watching her with that same comfortable smile with his hand held out to her, even when her wings and second pair of arms were clearly visible. Emboldened by this, she pushed the blanket the rest of the way off and took his hand, letting him yank her to her feet beside the bed.

"Wow, you're pretty light." Skipper noted in surprise.

Regina felt a hot blush on her cheeks. "Bugs usually are…" She quickly fought back her blush and shook her head to regain her composure. "So what's the plan, anyway? How are we going to find Insectiva?"

"Simple… the towns she's been hitting are clustered together… we're going to wait in that area until she strikes again, and go from there." Skipper gestured towards the door. "Of course, finding her would be pointless without you."

Regina felt another blush on her cheeks, but fought it back. He wasn't complimenting her, she figured. It was just a fact of how she was born. Still, she found herself unable to speak for the moment, so she simply nodded and turned to make her way out to the living room, trailing both of her right hands along the wall as she went. Soon they reached the living room, where Maria and Ty were relaxing on the sofa, watching the news coverage of the attack that had occurred last night.

"Good morning." Regina said politely as she emerged from the hallway.

Ty looked back at her over the couch, then his eyes went wide. "Whoa…"

"Good morning, Regina." Maria flashed her a smile over the back of the sofa. "Are you feeling okay? It seems like the pressure kind of got to you last night."

"Heh… yeah, sorry. I couldn't believe what was happening, and I hadn't slept since we left Beehive, and… um…" Regina glanced to the side, where Ty's face was shoved up right next to her chest, his eyes examining the joints on her lower set of arms. "Excuse me!" Both of her right arms lashed out, slapping him across the face one after the other. Ty blinked and snapped back, standing up straight with a dazed look on his face.

"Yeah, I-I deserved that, sorry." Ty blushed ferociously and rubbed his cheek. "I'm not sure what came over me."

"Pheromones, kid. Don't worry too much about it." Maria chuckled and walked up behind him, pulling him away from her as she gave Regina a warm smile. "Would you like some breakfast?"

"No thanks, I just want to get this over with." Regina replied softly.

"Very well." Maria seemed prepared for this answer, turning to lead the three teenagers toward the front door. "Here's what will be happening from here on out. Ty has experience behind the wheel, so he'll be using my car to take you two to the center of Insectiva's territory, the area where she's done the most attacks and takeovers. I'll remain here to monitor the news for Insectiva's activities and coordinate our actions, and I'll be sending Creepie and Abby to join you once they get here. Once Insectiva does make her move… well, we'll have to play it by ear once that happens, which is where communication between us will be very important. Clear?"

"Crystal." Regina nodded. She lifted her top left hand to take the cell phone Maria held out to her, looking down at it.

"This phone is set to automatically speed dial my home phone the second it's opened, so you'll be able to contact me any time without delay, and I'll be able to contact you the same way. Any expedition needs a leader… and I think you're the best one for this task."

"Me?" Regina looked up in surprise. "Why me?"

"You were born for it, dear." Maria smiled. "We're all mere humans, Creepie was born to be a soldier, but you… you were meant for far better, and I know if you apply yourself and use your head, you could do great things."

Regina took a deep breath and nodded, passing the cell phone from her upper arm to her lower arm, which moved it into one of the concealed pockets in her skirt. "Let's get out of here then." She gestured to the two boys and turned to head out the front door. They followed right on her heels down to the car parked in the driveway, while Maria leaned against her doorframe with her arms crossed over her stomach, watching them.

Ty slipped into the driver's seat while Regina sat in the back seat with Skipper, where she felt more comfortable than she would in the front with Ty. She was used to people being attracted to her and wanting to do her bidding, but she was quickly realizing she was more comfortable with those who weren't. Their car pulled out of the driveway moments later, and they turned to head down the road on the beginning of their 'expedition', as Maria had called it.

"You sure you're okay, Regina?" Skipper asked in a low whisper to Ty couldn't hear from the front seat.

Regina glanced out the window, holding her arms around the stomach for a moment before she replied with a soft sigh. "I lied… I really am hungry."

Skipper chuckled and reached up to grip one of her shoulders softly. "Okay, we'll stop somewhere for a bite, then get out of here. My treat." He smiled. Regina smiled back happily with a grateful nod.

***

Her finger slipped on the cool, wet rock that surrounded her, trying to feel her way up the sheer rock wall from which her room's only light source bled through the square hole in the ceiling. She moved almost agonizingly slowly, her feet taking almost a minute to find every foothold they could, even then struggling to stay in place atop the moist surface as she carried herself upwards bit by bit. How long had she been at this, anyway? She wasn't sure, with no sun or clock to go by. Only the dull aching and shaking in her arms told her it had been a very long time.

After a very long struggle, Chris-Alice managed to approach the top of the tunnel-like dungeon cell, reaching up for the square opening with one shaking hand. She managed to grip the edge… and have her fingers promptly slide from the smooth rocks, sending her plummeting back from the wall. She barely had time to let out a shriek before her back slammed into the ground, sending a jolt of pain roaring through her.

"Ooohhhhh…" She groaned in pain and squirmed on the ground. She tried to get up once or twice, but soon gave up on that, instead letting her back rest against the cool, firm ground.

"Did you really think you could pull that off?" A voice from the top of the cell taunted her. Chris-Alice opened her eyes to see one of her captors peering down from through the opening. She cackled and shook her head in disdain. "No human could get out of there on their own. Just get used to it girl, you're ours… until we don't need you anymore, at least." She laughed and turned to leave, her shadow soon vanishing from sight.

Chris-Alice closed her eyes and rolled over onto her side, still careful not to put any pressure on her aching back. That had been her only plan of escape… but she just wasn't strong enough to make it out of the top. What was she supposed to do now? What COULD she do now? There was no way out, she thought to herself. They were going to keep her here until they didn't need her anymore… and then they would kill her… or worse, turn her into one of those mindless mutant things. Either way, this was the end of her life.

"No… no no!" Chris-Alice cupped her head in her hands, feeling her heart beating faster as her breath sped up in her chest. "No… calm down Chris-Alice… remember your techniques… remember…" Her fists closed against her head, gripping her hair as she tried to relax, to slow her heartbeat the way the doctors had shown her. It didn't work though… she couldn't stop her heart from racing, nor could she stop the sobs that escaped from her lips.


	16. Mind Control

Chapter 16: Mind Control

Creepie and Abby rolled up to Maria's house in Middlington late in the afternoon, climbing out of the car and looking up at the building. Creepie stopped in the yard to wait for Abby to catch up, looking at the building with a hopeful gaze. Skipper was in there, Creepie thought to herself. It felt like it had been an eternity since she saw him, even though it had only been a little over two months. She couldn't wait to see him again, at long last…

When Abby caught up with her, she approached the door and knocked firmly on the wood, leaning back to wait for an answer. Her heart leapt when the door opened, but it sank only slightly when she saw that it was Maria, not Skipper.

"Creepie!" Maria smiled and reached out to pull Creepie into a brief embrace, releasing her just as quickly. "I'm so happy to see you safe. I really can't thank you enough for this, Abby."

"Yeah, well… I wasn't the one who freed her." Abby looked down.

"Yes… we know about Chris-Alice." Maria nodded and jerked her head inside. "Come in, both of you. We have a lot we need to discuss." She stepped aside to let the two teenage girls enter, closing the door behind them while they made their way into the living room.

Creepie looked around for Skipper, but she didn't see any sign of him. The living room was empty and dead silent except for the sound of a news reporter talking in excited tones on the TV, where images of a small down in rubble were being shown. "I thought Skipper was with you." Creepie looked up at Maria.

"He's already left, I'm afraid. He, Ty, and Regina are going to see what they can do." Maria told them.

"Ty went too!? By himself!?" Abby gasped. "But he can't go without me! He-"

"He's a big boy, Abby. He knows what he's doing." Maria assured her.

"If they're already gone, what are we doing here?" Creepie asked. "We can catch up to them if we hurry." She turned to leave. Abby nodded rapidly and moved to follow, but Maria placed a restraining hand on both of their shoulders.

"Uh-uh ladies… that's not a very good idea at this juncture. See, they have a plan that will or won't work without you two, but you both… are sort of Plan B." Maria smiled. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"You want to let them fail?" Abby growled. "I can't believe you!"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, Abby. I fully believe they'll succeed… but wise men say you hope for the best and prepare for the worst. The world won't benefit from putting all of our eggs in one basket. If they do fail, we three will be all that's left between the world and… well… genocide, whether it's of the human race or this new race Insectiva has created."

"I… guess that makes sense." Creepie exchanged a quick glance with Abby. "I still don't like it… we should be helping each other."

"We will be, don't worry." Maria put a hand on each of their shoulders again. "Now come on, let's get some nice relaxing tea and-" She stopped suddenly when she heard a jingle from the direction of the TV. The three women looked over to see the reporter speaking in even more excited tones as a live image played behind her.

"Reports have been confirmed, a second attack is currently taking place, but this one seems to be different from the first. Officials are scrambling to figure out a way to put a stop to it, but until they do they encourage all residents to stay in their homes and barricade all doors and windows. We repeat, all residents stay in their homes and out of harm's way." The reporter said firmly.

"Well… so much for tea." Maria squeezed the girls' shoulders. "Looks like it's show time for Regina…"

***

Regina and Skipper sat in the back of the still and silent car, facing each other in the back seat with a deck of cards sitting on the seat between them while they examined the cards they held in their hands. Regina had her hand of cards held in her bottom two hands, while her top two moved the cards about where they needed to go in the course of their game of Truth or Dare Poker, a game Skipper had made up during his time with the carnival. He was a very creative boy, Regina noted, and very gentlemanly at the same time.

For a few moments the only sound was the sound of Ty breathing steadily from the front seat, where he was napping after driving them the entire way out into the middle of nowhere, where they would most easily be able to reach any of the surrounding towns very quickly when anything finally did happen. Finally though Skipper pulled a card out of his hand and dropped it between them, letting the 2 of Hearts flutter to the seat.

"I get a Truth." Skipper smiled.

Regina grumbled and rubbed her forehead. He'd been kicking her butt all afternoon at this. "You're just making the rules up as you go along, aren't you?"

"You agreed to play." Skipped smiled innocently.

"Fair enough…" Regina sighed. "Okay, ask your question, then."

"Why did you come with us?" Skipper asked.

Regina blinked in surprise. "What do you mean? You know why I came… I was sick of living like… that." She blushed. "I guess it is kind of stupid… a lot of people would die for what I had, but the funny thing is that you always want something until you have it… then you realize it doesn't matter as much as something you… suddenly realize you were missing…" She looked down at the cards piled in front of them, avoiding his eyes.

She looked up slightly when she felt his hand lightly touch her bare knee, his fingers resting on her skin. Her eyes rose to meet his again, seeing him staring at her face with a strangely glazed-over expression that made her blush lightly.

"Skipper… what are you doing…?" She gasped softly when she felt him squeeze her knee as his cards fell onto the pile between them, and he moved over them, closer to her. She moved back in surprise until the back of her head hit the closed window behind her, watching him crawl slowly closer to her, over her legs on his way up to her face. "S-Skipper, what are you…?" She looked past him to see that the far window was closed as well, trapping them inside with the stale air. "Oh… my ph-pheromones… must be… stronger in this closed space…"

She gasped as he crawled up closer to her, straddling her legs and holding his body over hers as he slowly moved his face towards hers, his eyes staring deep into hers. He has a girlfriend, she thought to herself. He wasn't even doing this because he was choosing to, he probably just wanted to comfort her, and her pheromones were making him do everything he could. She was using him, manipulating him, just like everyone else. Was this really what she wanted? Sure, she might have thought about kissing him since they met… but like this?

"Skipper…" Regina felt her arms tremble slightly at her sides as his face moved closer to hers, her breath coming deeper in both panic and excitement. As his face neared hers she closed her eyes and puckered out her lips in preparation, waiting to feel his lips against hers. It may not have been ideal… but could she really pass this up? Creepie didn't deserve him anyway…

RIIIIING! The phone ringing from her skirt pocket made her jump from the seat, her legs flying straight up, slamming into something soft right above her knees. She heard a squeak right in front of her, and opened her eyes in time to see Skipper collapse off of the seat, hitting the floor at her feet with a thud and clutching between his legs in pain. "Oh… Skipper! Oh my gosh, I'm sorry!" Regina covered her mouth with both hands, her blush only worsening. Well… that wasn't how she hoped her first kiss would go at all.

It took her a moment to realize that the phone was still ringing from her pocket, so she quickly plucked it out and opened it, holding it up to her each with three of her hands to keep it steady. "H-hello?"

"Regina, Insectiva's on the move. A town to the east of your position is being transformed, you should be able to get there before she gets her new recruits out of town." Maria's voice told her urgently.

"R-right… we'll get on it." Regina kicked the back of the chair in front of her, waking Ty with a confused snort. "We need to get moving, Ty. We're going east, right now!"

"Right! We're going!" Ty rubbed his eyes and immediately jammed the keys into the ignition without a single word of complaint about the abrupt wakeup call. It had to be because of her pheromones, Regina realized. Normally she would have expected and embraced this, but it was starting to bother her a bit how much the boy obeyed her every command.

As the car pulled away from the side of the road and raced down the street, she looked down at Skipper as he groaned in pain and pulled himself back up into the back seat, huddling against the far door from her. "I'm sorry, are you okay?" Regina asked in concern. She gasped when he looked away from her, gazing instead out the window, which he opened with one hand on the door controls. Regina looked down and leaned against her own door. Oh man… did he remember what happened? Did he realize she'd been manipulating him?

The silence in the back of the car felt heavy as they rumbled down the street, the roar of the engine drowning out her heavy breath. She soon calmed down, just in time to see a small town coming up over the other side of the hill. "Stop right here, Ty. We don't need to drive straight into town and call attention to ourselves." Regina said quickly. The car rolled to the side of the road and came to a stop, where the three teenagers climbed out of the car.

"Are we sneaking in on foot?" Skipper asked.

"No, I'm sneaking in. You are both waiting here." Regina reached down to undo the front of her skirt, pulling it off and throwing it into the back seat of the car, leaving her in her yellow, black, and red leotard, with her black stinger visible to Skipper as he approached from around the car.

"You're going in alone? Why? We're here to help, there's no reason for you to-"

"Yes there is." Regina interrupted him as she reached up to pull out her contacts, then turned to look back at him. Skipper flinched slightly and took a small step back when he saw her inhuman, glowing yellow eyes looking at him. He regained his composure quickly, but it was too late to convince her that he was somehow okay with how she really looked. She could see very well what he really thought of her. "Because I can move faster, and quieter, than you two can. Just wait for me here, and if I'm not back in an hour, get out of here."

"Right." Skipper nodded with a strange expression on his face. She wasn't sure if he was trying to hide something or not, but it really didn't matter, she supposed. It wouldn't change what had to be done, or how dangerous it would be… nor would it change how he now saw her.

She took a deep breath and turned to walk toward the town, taking a few steps before kicking off the ground, letting her narrow wings beat rapidly against the air and carry her like a bullet towards the buildings ahead.


	17. Insect Extraction

Chapter 17: Insect Extraction

The city was still abuzz with activity, in the most literal sense. Regina flitted from shadow to shadow, her wings letting her dart from cover to cover like a blurred bullet. When one of the strange-looking moth humans heard her, she was already out of sight by the time they turned to look. Most of them seemed unsteady on their wings, Regina noted with some interest. As if they had never used them before… those had to be the ones who were just turned. They wandered in a sullen confused daze, many choosing to stay on the ground rather than hover in the air.

Regina quickly ducked back into the alley as the flying moth-creatures looked for intruders on the ground, rather than hallways up the alley wall where Regina clung with all six limbs to the rough brick surface. She watched two of the creatures pass by the alley, heading towards the confused ones who were wandering around on the ground. They landed lightly and raised their hands to get the others' attention.

"Nobody be afraid." The creature told them in a high female voice, her beautiful sky blue wings fluttering in the breeze that blew between the buildings. "You have been chosen to be a part of the new world… you're safe, and it's an honor we'll all share going forward into the future!" She grinned and lowered her hands down to her blonde-fur covered waist. "Now come with me, and I will lead you to the new world."

She turned to leave with her partner, a slightly smaller moth-creature with fiery red fur and emerald green wings, who had a pair of large round glasses perched on the end of her nose. The other creatures exchanged numb glances, then turned to follow the pair down the street in a loose line. Every one of their bodies were covered in a different colored hair underneath their clothing, though the two leading the pack wore nothing over their hairs, which served to keep them modest.

"Hmm…" Regina pursed her lips in thought, watching the group begin to move away down the street. She wasn't sure if her influence would overpower Insectiva's out here, especially since it seemed it worked better when she was close to someone, such as her in the car with Skipper. The mass of confused people here wouldn't be any help at all, but if she could get just one of the two leaders under her influence, they could take her straight to Insectiva's new lair…

With a determined nod, Regina pulled herself up the side of the buildings, her six limbs carrying her easily up the rough surface with long practiced ease until she reached the top, where she sprinted across the rooftop. She hovered rapidly from one building to the next, making it ahead of the group marching along the street below before leaping down the opposite side of the building into an alley ahead of them, hovering down to the ground and creeping up to the edge of the alley to watch them approach.

As they neared the alley, Regina walks out into the open, folding her four arms across her torso and turning to watch them.

"Who the heck are you?" The blonde one demanded angrily. "Are you intruding in Her Highness' territory!?"

"Her Highness? Excuse me, I am the only queen you need to be worrying about." Regina smirked haughtily, puffing her chest proudly and spreading her wings out from behind her back. "Now obey me!"

"You…! Get her!" The blonde charged forward, with the redhead right on her heels, spreading their slightly clawed hands out to their sides. Regina took off instantly, spinning on her heel and taking to the sky with ease, flying through the air like it was water. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw the two drones takes to the sky more clumsily, jumping to give themselves room to catch the air and dipping down a bit before finally beginning to rise.

"Hmph… newbies." Regina smirked to herself. She turned suddenly and dove straight toward the ground again, easily keeping her distance from the drones as she turned at the last moment to fly towards one of the nearby alleys again. The two moth-creatures followed hot on her heels straight into the alley, so focused on her that they didn't look ahead to see the steel fire escape coming up in front of them.

Regina weaved easily between the bars of one of the ladders, barrel rolling through it and coming out the other side with her limbs spread, kicking off the stairs behind the ladder and soaring up through the hole above her to slam into the top of the next floor of the fire escape and cling to it with all four hands as she looked back down over her head. Predictable enough, the two moth-girls slammed into the ladder, tumbling through the rungs and hitting the stairs like sacks of potatoes.

"Come on, you call yourselves the next step in human evolution?" Regina shook her head. "I'm embarrassed to be half the same species as you."

"Oohhh! I'll show you!" The blonde pushed herself to her feet, but Regina had already flung herself forward, sailing out of the fire escape upside down and rapidly beating her wings against the air, spinning herself upright and turning up towards the sky again.

The two moth-girls followed hot on her heels again, though only because Regina didn't move fast enough to outrun them. Their wings were much stronger than Regina's, but she'd been this way her entire life, and when she hadn't been faking humanity, she'd spent a lot of time learning to use her wings. She arched down towards the street again when she reached one of the main roads, flying straight down towards it, losing speed and allowing the girls behind her to gain some ground.

"What's the matter? Running out of energy!? Hah, it's no wonder with hips like that!" The blonde shouted in victory. Regina narrowed her eyes, turning up at the last minute to fly horizontal three feet above the ground, flying forward right above the street and beside the line of cars that sat on the side of the road. "You're not going to get away! We're going to catch you and deliver you to Her Highness, and she'll deal with you like all imposter queens!"

"You talk a lot for a drone!" Regina's arms shot out to one of the cars beside her suddenly, grabbing the doorhandle and yanking it open as she spun around it, coming around behind it as it opened towards her pursuers. The blonde moth-girl slammed into it hard enough to shatter the window and set the car rocking on its tires, at which time Regina shoved the door closed with all four arms, sending her falling onto the back seat, unconscious but still breathing. "So shut up." No sooner did she have the blonde down and out then a pair of red-furred arms wrapped around her from behind, yanking her away from the car. "YEARGH!"

"I got you!" The girl in the glasses held onto her, grinning. "I got you! The queen will be so pleased!"

"Will she?" Regina looked back over her shoulder, seeing the girl's head right behind her shoulder. The girl stared at her curiously through her glasses as their eyes met, her grip slowly beginning to relax. "You don't really want to take me to her, do you? I'm sure you don't."

"I…" The girl bit her lip. "But she's-"

"A very bad person." Regina told her. "Look what she did to you… without your permission. Do you really want to serve her? Hm? I know I don't."

The girl stared at her for a few more moments, then slowly shook her head and released her, stepping back. Regina sighed in relief. Her pheromones were working… but there was no way she could do it to a large violent crowd without getting ripped apart first, it took too long to take hold. Oh well, it was progress, and having one of them on her side who knew where Insectiva's new base was would be a huge benefit.

"So since we're on the same page, why don't you come with me?" Regina suggested with a smile. "We're working together to stop the world from being transformed against their will, and we could certainly use your help."

"My help?" The girl blinked and reached up to adjust her glasses nervously. "I'm not sure what I could do… I've just been helping Her Highness round up the new evolutionaries. I'm not some kind of… well… revolutionary, or anything."

"I think you could be a bigger help than you think." Regina slung two of her arms around her shoulders companionably, pulling her closer, making sure to keep her close for the moment. Her eyes seemed to glaze over slightly, though she remained conscious, unlike those who were under Insectiva's complete control. It was strange, Regina realized, that Creepie seemed to have been under total control while these drones weren't. She would have to ask Maria about that later…

"Well…" The moth-girl looked down, then nodded and looked up at her again. "Okay, I'll do my best!" She flashed her a smile.

"Glad to hear it." Regina smiled back. "Do you have a name?"

"Naomi." The girl adjusted her glasses again.

"Right, Naomi. Come on, let's get back to the others, we can figure out what to do from there. Just follow me, and try to keep out of sight. I'll try to explain everything on the way." Regina turned to rush toward one of the nearby alleys again, pulling Naomi along behind her. Neither of them noticed when a blonde head poked up from the back seat of the car on the side of the road, watching them go with narrowed eyes and a snarl on her lips.

Regina and Naomi sped through the city on foot as fast as they could. They could have flown, but Naomi wouldn't be able to keep up with Regina, and with how clumsy she was in the air without someone to help her focus, it was actually faster to run. They ran into a couple groups of newly-transformed Hybrids being led by some of Insectiva's old henchmutants, but they managed to slip by all of them without being noticed, nearly making it to the edge of town before suddenly the blonde from before dropped in front of them, landing heavily in a crouch and rising to her feet.

"How DARE you pull such a dirty rotten trick on me!" She howled. "I would have caught you if you weren't so dirty!"

"You couldn't catch me if I let you. In fact, you didn't." Regina retorted.

"Shut up!" The girl snapped back. "You can't just insult me and her Highness and get away with it!" The girl looked up and let out a furious shriek, cupping her hands around her mouth. Regina raised her eyebrow, then her eyes widened when she heard dozens, if not hundreds, of return shrieks from inside the city, beginning to move closer to them.

"That's the Swarm Shriek…" Naomi warned. "It tells the others to come as fast as they can because there's an intruder."

"Thanks, I really couldn't have put that together myself." Regina quipped. They might have been able to outrun the swarm… but even if they did they would risk leading them straight to Ty and Skipper, getting them all in big trouble. Regina swore softly under her breath and leaned closer to Naomi. "Pretend you were my prisoner… then while they're focused on me, run, there's a car on the street outside town where they will help you. I'll try to distract them." Naomi nodded discreetly. She might have normally protested, but Regina's influence was too strong to let her.

Suddenly Naomi yanked her arm away from Regina and ran forward, yelling at the top of her lungs. "Aaaiiieeeee! Help me! She's trying to take me from Her Highness!" The performance wasn't very convincing, Regina groaned inwardly, but thankfully her audience was made up of half-mindless drones who failed to notice the act.

"Hah! You've lost your hostage!" The blonde creature laughed as the sky began to darken around them. Looking up, Regina saw that the sun was being blocked by the shadows cast by a massive swarm of moth-creatures, who fluttered down towards them en-masse to hover just over their heads in a buzzing, furious swarm. "Are you going to give up, intruder?" the girl asked. "You can't possibly expect to fight the glory of Her Majesty's plan."

"Guess you're right, oh darn." Regina shrugged all four arms and raised them to the sky. She noticed Naomi running away from the crowd unseen, sprinting across the grass and out of sight behind some buildings while everyone was focused on her. "I guess you've got me, I concede to your superiority and turn myself in for judgment."

"Haha!" The girl barked out a haughty, victorious laugh. "Glad to see you know how to be smart. Bring her with us when we go back to The Hive. Her Highness will want to see what we've caught here." She grinned and turned to head back into the city. "Those of you taking care of new evolutionaries, return to your duties. We need to get everyone back home ASAP, and we're behind schedule! Move move move!" She clapped her hands, and more than half of the hovering creatures turned to head back into the city. It looked like Regina had managed to find the leader, and was going to see the big boss herself…

Good.


	18. Reasons to Fight

Chapter 18: Reasons to Fight

Ty leaned against the side of the car with Skipper, his arms folded across his chest. He could feel his head beginning to clear now that Regina had been gone for a while. For a time the thoughts of her wouldn't leave his head, all he could imagine was being with her, making her happy, making her smile. Now that he was starting to snap out of it, it kind of freaked him out. It was a scary thing what could be chemically done to a person's mind. It was like being in love, but a hundred times more intense, to where he could think of nothing else.

"What do you think?" Skipper asked suddenly. Looking over at him, Ty could see that he was thinking the same things Ty was.

"Hm? About what?" Ty replied.

"Regina." Skipper shook his head. "I really can't figure out why she came with us so easily. She gave us a reason, but I'm not sure if she's being honest..."

"She's got to have her reasons." Ty shrugged. "As long as she's on our side, does it matter why she's here?"

"Yeah… as long as she's on our side." Skipper sighed and looked down at the ground thoughtfully.

Ty wasn't sure how to comfort him, so instead he turned to look back at the city, and saw a single fiery-red figure running up the street towards him. "Hey Skipper, I think we have company!" Ty pushed off of the car with Skipper quickly moving up beside him. "What should we do? Should we get out of here?"

"I don't know, something's off… have you ever seen a bug moving alone along the ground?" Skipper asked. "We should see what's going on."

So they waited, watching the lone figure running toward them. It seemed to be a girl with fiery red hairs covering every inch of her body, and bright emerald green wings spreading outward from her back, which matched her emerald green eyes. As she moved closer, Ty thought she looked familiar. Her face was recognizable underneath the layer of hairs… in fact, he was sure he recognized her. He gasped when he realized he did know her.

"Naomi!?" Ty blinked in shock and stepped forward as the girl reached them, then hunched over huffing and puffing for breath from her long run. "Naomi, you're…"

"H-huh?" Naomi looked up inquisitively, looking at his face from behind her thick round glasses. "Do I…?"

"Naomi, it's me, Ty." Ty gripped her arms tightly, pulling her upright to face him. "Don't you recognize me?"

"Ty…?" Naomi squinted through her glasses for a moment, then her eyes flared in recognition and she gasped. "Ty! It's really you!"

"And it's really you, too." Ty grinned and pulled her into a tight hug without thinking, pulling her tightly against his chest. "You're really okay… this means everyone's okay…"

Naomi squeaked in surprise, but barely hesitated before wrapping her arms around him as well, resting her cheek on his shoulder. "I barely know what's been happening… it's like I was dreaming… then that girl showed up and told me that I was doing something wrong… it was like… oh I barely know what it was like."

"Regina?" Ty pushed Naomi back with his hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes. "Where is she? She didn't come back with you?"

"No." Naomi shook her head. "She stayed behind with Paige… Paige has been Her Highness… I mean, Insectiva's second in command since the first one left."

"She stayed behind?" Skipper shook his head. "What is she thinking?"

"Wait… Naomi, you know the way to Insectiva's new lair, don't you?" Ty asked.

"Lair…? Sure… I guess. We came from there." Naomi nodded. Skipper and Ty exchanged a fast glance and a smile.

"She came through for us… let's head back and tell Maria the good news, then." Skipper grinned.

***

Regina had to admit, she was pretty impressed. Two of Insectiva's hybrid drones were carrying her through the sky, flying higher and higher up the side of what appeared to be a massive cone-shaped mountain, though the closer they moved the more holes in the side Regina could spot. It wasn't a mountain… it was one massive anthill, with the interior lit by lanterns, and whose passageways were playing host to hundreds upon hundreds of the creatures, especially with the new ones from the recently-turned city spilling into it at the base.

She was carried into the sky towards the cone, which was open to the sun, allowing it to shine inside of it down on a massive mosquito that was perched on one side of a large stone throne, upon which an old woman with pale, wrinkled skin sat. The mosquito looked up from the ground to watch them approach with blood red eyes, while the woman crossed her legs in front of her with a comfortable smile on her face.

"So, what do we have here then?" She cocked her head to the side curiously and stood up as the bugs landed in front of her. She approached them with wide eyes, her hands raising up in front of her to reach towards Regina, caressing her face with a gentle caress. "A second one… I can barely believe it. You are so… beautiful." She stepped closer, running her hands over Regina's features. "Completely different from Creepie and yet… just as potent… just as strong."

Regina hadn't expected this, but she tried to keep her composure intact. "Insectiva, I presume."

"You presume correctly, my child." Regina replied with a smile. "And from the odors emanating from your body, I also presume that my pheromones wouldn't work on you, would they?" Insectiva laughed lightly when she saw Regina's curious expression. "Not that I would want to use them on you, of course… you aren't like Creepie, who rejected my vision twice now… you… I can see in your eyes that you and I have so much more in common."

"Really now?" Regina raised one eyebrow. She was surprised by the two hybrids beside her moving back, leaving her standing and facing Insectiva completely unrestrained. "What makes you think we have anything in common?"

"I can see it in your eyes… I can see it in your body. Humans… don't like you very much, do they?" Insectiva slid her hand from her cheek down to her chin, pulling her eyes up to meet her own. "They could never accept a creature as beautiful as you. It's simply not in human nature… which is why humanity needs to change… or be drawn into the shadows of history."

Regina's eye twitched slightly. Skipper had thought she was pretty enough… that was, until she'd revealed her complete true self. She could see it in his eyes that he was disgusted… possibly even scared of her when she took her disguise completely off. It was the same expression she'd seen on hundreds of faces in the past, on hundreds of people who had accepted her… and then turned on her and helped drive her away from her home… as much of a home as she'd ever had, at least.

Insectiva's smile turned encouraging. "Together, Regina, we could make this world safe for you, and all of the insects in the wild. We could put an end to the arrogance of humanity, and bring about the rise of the insects… and there could be others just like you." Regina's eyes widened slightly. "What do you say, child? Will you help me correct the mistake this world has made in elevating humanity so far above the rest of nature's creatures?"

Regina glanced over her shoulders at the moth-hybrids that still stood watch behind her, though they were more relaxed than before. They weren't soldiers, she realized, they were just people doing as they were asked. Once this was all over, and they had nothing left to fight, they would be allowed to run free… the thought brought a smile to her lips. They would be free… and so would Regina. She wouldn't need any more ponchos or contacts ever again.

After pursing her lips in thought for several moments, she looked up at Insectiva once again. "We'll have to prepare. Creepie and the others have one of your drones. She's going to be leading them right here to try to stop you."

Insectiva grinned. "To stop US, child." She slipped one arm around Regina's shoulders and turned to leave. "Come, we'll have to prepare some surprises for them when they get here… especially for the traitor…"

***

Maria's house was too quiet, Creepie thought to herself as she read through one of the books from the small library Maria had hidden in the back of the house. It was a small house, so it was really just a closet with bookshelves in it, but it still had enough reading material for a girl like her. Ever since they'd gotten the call from Ty that they'd managed to extract one of the hybrids from Insectiva's grasp, Maria and Abby had vanished into Maria's bedroom to hammer out a course of action on the computer. Creepie wasn't much of a planner though, she preferred to just DO things, so she let them have fun while she got in a bit of relaxation time before the inevitable storm. It was a bit boring, though…

She looked up from her book when she heard a knock on the front door. For a moment she just stared at the door, then rose up from the sofa to walk over to it. When it opened, she saw Ty and a hybrid girl standing on the other side of the door, their hands clasped tightly between them while the girl's other hand unconsciously twirled and tugged at the long strands of red hair that flowed down from her head over the equally red strands of hair that covered her entire body.

"Oh, you're…" The girl narrowed her eyes at Creepie from behind her thick glasses, as if trying to focus on her. "Creepie… aren't you?"

"Yeah, that's me." Creepie waved with a courteous smile. "And you are…?"

"Oh, I'm Naomi." The girl replied quickly. "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude…"

"No problem, it's kind of a tense situation." Creepie gestured towards the back hallway. "Speaking of which, Maria and Abby are waiting for you in the back to work out a plan from here."

"Abby's still around too? Great! Come on Naomi, let's go!" Ty lurched forward, yanking Naomi along with him, rushing her behind him down the hallway. Creepie turned to watch them go, her eyes lingering on the girl. It was so strange to see something like that outside of a mirror, Creepie thought to herself. She put her hand on the door and turned to look outside again, ready to let in the last guest when she suddenly remembered who it was…

For a few minutes, they both stood silent. Skipper had already made his way up the short steps to the small patio, and was standing just outside, looking at her with a blank, almost disbelieving gaze. Creepie wasn't sure what to do, so she just waited, feeling like she was going to pass out. Her chest was hurting, and she wasn't sure why… it felt like her heart was going to beat its way clear out of her body. It had been over a month… no, two months. Did he still feel the same way?

Finally her question was answered when Skipper walked in the door, approaching her and snapping her into a tight embrace that pressed their bodies together tightly. Creepie normally didn't like human contact very much, but she found herself craving and welcoming it now, wrapping her arms around his torso and returning the firm kiss that was already coming her way. She clung to him as if afraid he was about to fly away at a moment's notice, but he didn't. His lips remained pressed against hers for several minutes before the kiss broke.

"Oh Creepie… geeze, Creepie…" Skipper pressed his forehead against hers, gulping and staring into her eyes. She could see the tears building, a few trickling down his cheeks already. "I was starting to think I'd never see you again…"

"I'm sorry, Skipper…" Creepie told him softly. "For everything, taking those stupid drugs, taking your money… I'm so sorry…"

"I forgave you for those a long time ago." Skipper smiled. "I'll forgive you for anything as long as you never, ever, disappear like that again."

"I'll do my best." Creepie smiled back. "Just promise not to let me go."

"I'll do my best." Skipper replied softly, his hands stroking her back with a soft touch. Their next kiss was softer than the one before, but carried with it everything they had wanted to say over the last two months they'd been forced apart. Creepie could feel her heart beating faster again as she felt his arms squeeze her tighter. Her eyes closed, her body melting into the kiss and the embrace, until she was completely lost in it. Even Insectiva slipped out of her mind for now… there was just one thing she needed.

Their kiss didn't end for a while. Creepie wasn't sure how long it lasted, but the sun had begun to fade into the horizon outside by the time she found herself curled up on the living room sofa like a larvae nestled against Skipper's side as he sat with both arms wrapped around her waist, holding her close. Creepie felt her eyes getting tired, but before she could close them she heard a girl speak from behind the couch.

"Awww, isn't that adorable?" Abby approached the back of the sofa with a sigh.

"This is a private moment, if you don't mind." Creepie muttered.

"Then get a room, this isn't your house." Abby quipped back. Creepie grunted, but didn't move away from Skipper. "We think we've worked out a plan to bring Insectiva down, but calling it 'risky' would be an understatement."

"What are we going to be doing?" Skipper asked.

"We're going to be sneaking into her hive tonight. It's not that far from here, and if we rush, we can make it long before the sun comes up tomorrow. This way she won't have had time to take control of all of her new 'evolutionaries', as Naomi called them, and we might be able to use them to our advantage."

"You're right, that is risky, bordering on stupid." Creepie told her.

"The longer we wait, the more soldiers she has, and the riskier it gets. There'll never be a better time than now." Abby reasoned.

"Good point." Creepie nodded. "I know I'm in."

"Me too… just let me get something from my house first." Skipper smiled. "I think I need to prepare a little before I help with an invasion."

"And really, get a room next time." Abby smirked as she turned to head into the back again. "Some of us don't want to see that."

Creepie grabbed one of the sofa pillows and chucked it at the back of her head.


	19. Preparing for the Storm

Chapter 19: Preparing for the Storm

Creepie approached Dweezewold Manor for the first time since she'd been sent off to Juvenile Hall. The place looked even more deserted and run down than usual, since it actually had been empty for all this time. Even its insect occupants were gone, leaving an empty, hollow shell of a home behind in their wake. She shivered softly as she moved through the house. She kind of didn't want to be here without her family around, it was a bit spooky, but there was something she needed now that she was free from Insectiva… clothing.

Her hair kept her modest, but walking around naked just wasn't her style. After digging around in her room for a few moments, she managed to find the beautiful black spider-patterned dress Budge had gotten her for her birthday six months ago. She allowed herself a wistful smile as she fluttered it out, then pulled it on. It was a bit tighter than it used to be, but it still fit her well enough despite being very form-fitting now. It did restrict her movement a bit, however. So she leaned down with a pair of scissors to cut the dress up to her thighs into two pieces, a front and a back, Chinese style. Then she completely severed the sleeves and pulled them off, turning to look at herself in the mirror.

"Wicked…" Creepie smiled to herself, then turned to leave, the cloth of her dress swaying against her legs as she made her way out front.

She stopped when she heard a whistle from beside her door. "Looking good, Creepie."

Creepie turned to look at him, and was surprised to find him wearing his latest Tarantula Boy costume. He'd long outgrown his original one, but unlike Creepie, he could afford to constantly buy new ones. Besides, his job as an entertainer required it. "You're all dolled up." Creepie noted.

"Well, it came in handy last time something happened, thought I should be ready this time too." Skipper balled up his six fists and punched them in front of him, each arm acting with some independence from the others. "I almost feel like a superhero."

"Who says you're not one, Tarantula Boy?" Creepie smiled and walked up to him.

"Hahaha!" Skipper laughed and rubbed the back of his neck with a blush. "You know, I never really thought of that."

"Just try not to do anything stupid like most superheroes." Creepie teased. "If she gives you a choice between saving me and saving the world, for crying out loud, save me."

"I'll keep that in mind." Skipper snickered and reached down to snake his fingers inside of Creepie's, holding her hand in a firm grip. "Come on, we should get back to Maria's and see if the others are ready to go yet."

***

"So everyone's basically just been indoctrinated into this hive?" Abby asked, leaning her back against a wall in one of the bedrooms of Maria's house while Naomi looked through Maria's wardrobe for something to wear. Ty was there too, sitting on the bed, though he refused to look straight at her despite the fact that he'd been with her like this for hours now. She was already wearing a pair of slacks, but hadn't found any shirts to wear. "Man, I can't imagine what that must have been like."

"Honestly? I'm not sure how to describe it. It was kind of like dreaming… kind of like being in love… and kind of like being with my mom, all rolled into one. I could barely think about anything except making Insectiva happy, making her proud of me." Naomi replied as she pulled out a loose t-shirt and held it in front of her before the mirror, then threw it in the closet again. "I can already tell these wings are going to be a pain. I can't even wear a shirt."

"You could always go Looney Tunes style." Abby suggested. "It's not like anyone can see your boobs through the hair anyway."

"GAH! Abby!" Ty turned bright red, his head still practically pressed against the wall beside the bed. "What's wrong with you!? Don't be so crude!"

Naomi giggled and blushed lightly. "I don't think I could do that. I'd be way too embarrassed…"

"You've been walking around like that all day, even Ty's seen you like that." Abby smirked teasingly at her brother.

"Abby, I swear…" Ty growled without turning away from the wall while Naomi's blush deepened.

"Come on Abby, stop teasing." Naomi cleared her throat and self-consciously wrapped her arms around her chest, even though Ty wasn't looking and nothing naughty could be seen anyway. "I guess I could at least wear this…" she opened the dresser beside the closet and pulled out a plain black sports bra, carefully sliding it on down over her wings, pulling it down to slip it underneath them so she could pull it back up into place. "Okay Ty, I'm decent."

"Good." Ty smiled and looked back, though his cheeks were still horrendously red. "Someone needs to take her dirty mind and go away." Abby stuck her tongue out at him. "Anyway, Naomi, I think you should stay here when we head out a little later."

"We head out?" Naomi looked at him. "What, you're going with them? Why would you go? You're just a kid."

Abby and Ty exchanged a long glance before Ty spoke. "Well… Naomi, um…"

"We're Grossologists." Abby blurted out. Ty whirled on her in surprise, but she held up one hand. "Ty, this isn't the time to beat around the bush, this could turn really really dangerous in a hurry, and you don't want a lie to be the last thing you say to her now, do you? Besides, our cover's been blown several times in the last few days anyway, and I trust Naomi."

Ty blinked and looked at the red-haired girl sitting on the edge of the bed now, watching him with a curious, slightly confused look on her face. "You're right… I definitely don't want the last things I say to her to be a lie." He told her with a soft smile. Naomi smiled back with another soft blush, reaching up to brush some of her long hair out of her eyes.

"Well then… I'll be waiting for you outside." Abby reached up to pull a red backpack off of her back, setting it on the floor beside the door. "By the way, I snagged this from the Gag Lab before we left. You might be needing it." She winked and turned to leave, closing the bedroom door firmly behind her, leaving Ty and Naomi alone.

The two of them looked at one-another blushing lightly for a few moments before Naomi broke the silence. "What did you want the last thing you said to me to be…?"

"The truth… I guess I want to tell you the truth." Ty gulped and scooted closer to her on the bed, reaching out to put his hand on top of hers on the blanket. "I um… guess there's a lot of truths to tell you, Naomi… I barely know where to start." He looked down at her hands nervously to avoid looking at her eyes. Her other hand moved up to gently rest on top of his, turning her other hand to hold his gently between both of hers. "We're… secret agents, sort of. We work for the government and everything, but… it's a secret, so you can't tell anyone."

"Of course." Naomi nodded solemnly. "I guess that's why you keep disappearing in class, huh?"

"Yeah, sort of…" Ty took a deep breath. "And there's one other thing I wanted to tell you…"

"Yes, Ty?" Naomi nodded expectantly, her hands squeezing down on his.

"I… really like you." Ty blushed deeply. "I mean, I know we've gone on a few dates but… I just wanted you to know I think it's something really… special… and I was actually kind of wondering if, when this is over… we could go… y'know…" He was stopped when he felt her lips push against his cheek as she leaned in over his hands.

"Yes." Naomi smiled broadly through the blush on her own cheeks. "Yes, I'd love to go steady."

"W-wow…" Ty grinned. "You're good."

"Heh… I've been wanting to ask you for a while." Naomi replied with a smile. "But my sister told me boys were scared off by that sort of thing."

"Well, maybe some… but not me." Ty grinned and pulled her into a brief hug before taking a deep breath and pulling back again. "But this isn't the time to celebrate…"

"No, I guess not." Naomi looked toward the door, at the red backpack that was sitting on the floor beside it. Ty rose to his feet off the bed and approached it, unzipping it to pull out the red bodysuit that was resting inside.

"My Slime Suit…" Ty smiled slightly and looked up at Naomi. "I guess it really is time for me to go."

"I'll be waiting." Naomi smiled and pushed her glasses up her nose nervously. "Hopefully when you get back I'll be, y'know, human again."

"It won't really matter if you are or not." Ty assured her. "I'll be coming back for you soon, Naomi, and with any luck I'll be bringing everyone else with me. We can go back home and-"

"I know." Naomi smiled. "Get going… everyone's waiting for you."

"Right." Ty nodded and clutched his Slime Suit tighter to his chest before turning to leave. "Bye, Naomi…"

***

Stupid silence… stupid walls, stupid insect-people buzzing around up there, Chris-Alice though to herself bitterly. NO! She chided herself, slapping herself in both sides of the head as she doubled over, leaning down over her knees. She couldn't afford to lose it, she needed to keep herself together. She wouldn't be here forever, someone would come find her, she knew they would. Creepie was still out there, she would come. She wouldn't rest until she had Chris-Alice free and she brought Insectiva down.

The buzzing sound from the hole high above her was interrupted without warning, as if everyone above had scattered and fled. Chris-Alice blinked in surprise and sniffled away the stream of tears that had come and gone with the unknowable passage of time, turning her eyes upward just as a pair of footsteps approached the hole. A shadow blocked out what little light filtered down into the dark hole for a few moments before a figure began to descend on rapidly beating wings… though these wings were tinier than the others.

"Hello, Chris-Alice" A somewhat familiar voice spoke from the shadow outlined by the light from above. "It's been a long time."

"Who…?" Chris-Alice shielded her eyes from the light and tried to peer at the figure, trying to wrack her brain to place the voice. "Is that… Regina? Regina Beesley?"

"You remember me." The girl landed in front of her, four arms stretching out from her sides to rest on her hips. "I'm actually kind of surprised. I figured you blocked me out along with everyone else in that damned school."

"I didn't block you out, I wondered where you went…" Chris-Alice eyed the four shadows that stuck out of the girl's sides, almost sure she had to be seeing things that weren't there. "What are you doing here Regina…?"

"Where else would I be? I sure couldn't be in Middlington, or anywhere else you stinking humans would be. When you're not destroying my life you're being mindless drones who leave me unfulfilled…" The girl stepped closer to Chris-Alice, the light shifting to outline her featured before Chris-Alice, who gasped in surprise.

"You're… you're a bug… just like Creepie." Chris-Alice gaped.

"You're not the first person to say that to me." Regina leaned down in front of Chris-Alice, her strangely alien yellow eyes peering into hers. "Creepie Creecher… what is it about her, Chris-Alice? Even Carla, the pretty little bitch-queen herself, chose her over me. She was more loved, she was more accepted… why?"

Chris-Alice blinked and looked down for a moment before looking back up again. "Because Creepie's our friend… and we barely knew you. You really didn't give us a chance to know you. I wanted to, but you were always so focused on our projects, I never had a chance to talk to you." Regina narrowed her eyes slightly, looking back and forth between Chris-Alice's eyes. She didn't say anything for a long time, so Chris-Alice gulped before speaking again in a soft tone. "What are you going to do to me?"

Regina reached up slowly, running one hand over the side of her cheek and lifting a needle with her other hand, which was filled with glowing green mutagen.

***

Creepie stood outside the door of Maria's car, holding it open with one hand while she looked back at Maria and Naomi, who were waiting by the door watching Abby, Ty, and Skipper climb into the vehicle, with Ty in the driver's seat.

"Keep in touch, Creepie. We'll try to monitor you from here as best we can… remember, move silently, move swiftly. Get to those newcomers to that hive and you can turn this all around, especially if you can find Regina and get her help."

"We'll do the best we can." Creepie nodded. "If this doesn't work…"

"Something drastic will happen…" Maria told her. "The human race will probably survive either way… it's those innocent people I'm really worried about. The government isn't known for subtlety."

Creepie nodded again. "I'll let you know when we get there." She climbed into the car beside Skipper and closed the door tightly behind her. "Let's get out of here, Ty. No more beating around the bush… we're going to stop this right now."


	20. Searching the Web

Chapter 20: Searching the Web

Creepie crouched low behind a tree, watching the massive hive in front of them bustling with activity. It looked just as Naomi had described it, like a 200 foot tall anthill outlined by the pale moonlight that probably extended as far into the ground as it did into the air. There were a lot of creatures flitting around through the holes in the side of the cone, which were unusual in an anthill, but these weren't ants, in any case. Just a psychopath who thought she knew what was best for bug and human kind.

Ty tapped the side of the green visor that covered his eyes, examining every inch of the cone. "That is one sturdy mass of rock." He told the others. "It would take a pretty big force to punch a new hole into the inner tunnels, and with that much force we'd risk triggering a collapse."

"Killing everyone inside is exactly what we're trying to avoid, here." Creepie reminded him. "So let's come up with a different plan."

"It looks like the bugs are moving in a pattern…" Abby pursed her lips and tapped her own visor, zooming in on one of the entrances for a few minutes. "There's definitely a pattern… if we're quick we might be able to get in, but we'll have to go through one of the patrols to do it. It looks like if we take one of them out, we'll open up a three minute hole to get ourselves inside and hidden before they notice the patrol's gone."

Skipper whistled appreciatively. "Geeze, do you ever put down the books?"

"Hey, I'm not a nerd… he is." Abby jerked her thumb at Ty.

"I'm the nerd with a girlfriend, though." Ty smirked back. "So let me know how that boyfriend hunt is going some time." Abby rolled her eyes.

"How do we take out one of the patrols? We'd have to be invisible and fast. If they so much as see us coming the entire hive will be alerted in seconds." Creepie asked.

"One of the patrol routes takes them close to the bushes… if we can ambush them there, we can hide them in the forest while we get in and find Regina." Abby suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Creepie nodded in agreement. "Let's go, hurry!"

The four of them moved through the forest, keeping to the low branches and underbrush as they made their way to the trees Abby had indicated. As she started to climb Creepie noticed that the girl had been dead on. Every six minutes two of the hybrids swept out of the cone to fly close to the trees they were now hiding inside, and there were three different pairs following this route. Insectiva was definitely taking no chances with her security… but failure here wasn't an option.

Abby flashed Creepie and Skipper a silent hand gesture, then slowly slipped out onto one of the sturdier tree branches, balancing precariously on the centers of her feet. Her stance was solid though as she reached the end of the branch, then ducked down to make herself as small as possible as one more patrol passed by. She pushed herself up to her feet, watching as that patrol vanished into one of the other entrances to the cone, then another emerged a few minutes later.

"Now!" Abby kicked herself out of the trees into a spin, her leg whipping out from the foliage just as the two hybrids moved to pass by. Her aim was true, and the hybrid's head snapped back when her foot slammed into the side of its head, sending them both plummeting towards the ground. The second hybrid gasped and whirled to retreat, but a massive ball of sticky white webbing slammed into its wings to wrap around its whole body, sending it, too, plummeting towards the ground.

Creepie threw herself out of the tree she was hiding in, catching the two hybrids and pumping her wings as hard as she could to keep them from getting hurt on the way down. Abby managed to land on her feet on the ground with a grunt, absorbing the blow by landing on all fours and crouching almost low enough to slam her jaw into the grass. Creepie hovered into the cover of the trees with the hybrids, out of sight of the cone while Abby rushed back to join her.

"I hope everything goes that smoothly." Ty approached as Creepie touched down on the ground, setting the two hybrids on the grass at their feet.

The hybrid that was still conscious struggled against his sticky bonds, his lip curling back into a snarl. "What are you doing? You can't fight her highness! The whole world will join us soon!"

"Yeah?" Skipper gripped the Web Spinner on his right upper arm. "We'll say hi for you when that day comes." He leveled the spinner at the two hybrids, opening fire to cover them both in a thick cocoon of sticky webbing that made them look like a pair of trash bags rather than people. They could still hear muffled screams of anger from the one that was still conscious, but it was doubtful anyone else would hear it.

Abby gave Skipper a thumbs up. "Not bad, now let's get into position!" The other three nodded, and they made their way to the edge of the field to wait for the two remaining patrols on this route to pass by. One… two… then they were off, charging across the grassy field to the base of the cone. They reached base of the cone just under the entrance right before the next patrol took off into the sky. Abby gestured quickly to the other three to hold still, then waited until the next patrol passed by a moment later before gesturing into the entrance.

Abby led the way, charging silently into the stone hole, with Creepie, Ty, and Skipper following hot on her heels. Their feet pounded on the cold, rough stone for almost thirty seconds before they finally reached another branching tunnel, turning to dart down one of the hallway as fast as they could. The sound of humming wings was nearly constant here, echoing through every empty corridor at an almost deafening volume. They couldn't even tell which way it was coming from.

"Okay, we're in, now what do we do?" Skipper asked in a hushed tone, barely loud enough to hear over the steady hum of butterfly wings.

"We find Regina and the people from the last town, and bring them together. We should split up to make us harder to find… smaller groups hide easier than bigger ones." Abby replied.

"Great ideas, but how do we find them?" Ty asked. "We wouldn't even be able to use our communicators in this mountain."

"We need to split up and search the entire structure if we have to." Creepie suggested. "Skipper and I will go down this way. Abby, Ty, you two go the other way, and we'll meet up back here if we don't find anything."

"Right, we'll see you there." Abby took Creepie's hand in a brief, firm shake. "Be careful."

"Always. Just watch your own backs." Creepie smirked slightly and turned back to Skipper, giving him a nod before turning to rush down their hallway, hearing him running right behind her.

They made their way through the labyrinth of winding tunnels, moving fast and light on their feet to keep out of sight of those hybrids who roamed through the hallways. Unlike the patrols on the outside, these ones were hardly paying attention, and in fact many of them seemed to be acting normal, like they were taking a stroll through the public park rather than wandering through an evil villainess' lair.

In fact, two of them stopped and turned to look at Creepie and Skipper with blank smiles. "Hey, I don't recognize your kind around here." The boy looked down suspiciously at Skipper's body, which was still covered by his Tarantula Boy costume.

"It's… um… new." Skipper replied as smoothly as he could. "Insec… Her Highness decided to branch out a bit, try new things."

"Oh!" The boy's female companion gasped. "You mean like the bee girl, yeah, she has been trying different forms lately."

Creepie exchanged a sharp glance with Skipper before turning back to the girl. "Bee girl, huh? Sounds like something I'd like to see. Can you tell me where she is now?"

"In the lower levels, head straight here and take the corkscrew tunnels down as far as they'll go." The girl pointed behind her. "This place is a pain in the butt to get around at first, but you get used to it. The dim lights are actually kind of romantic." She grinned and slipped one arm through her male companion's, who took her hand with a soft squeeze.

"Well, thanks for your help. Don't let us hold you up." Creepie stepped aside to let the couple pass, watching them head down the tunnel.

"Am I the only one who was kind of creeped out by that?" Skipper moved up beside Creepie. "They were acting completely normal, after we watched them and everyone else in here raid and decimate an entire town's worth of people."

"Yeah, it's strange. Chris-Alice said when I was under Insectiva's control I was completely conked out and mindless… maybe she's using a different pheromone for these people." Creepie stroked her chin curiously. "In any event, we know Regina's in the bottom section of the hive. If we can get to her, our chances of putting an end to this go up dramatically."

"Then let's not waste any more time." Skipper nodded and turned to move down the hallway again. "At least it looks like we blend in well enough with the folk here, getting down there should be a snap."

"True, I actually didn't expect this." Creepie admitted as she turned to follow him. "I just hope we didn't make any mistakes that weren't in our favor…"

***

BAM! One of the creature's bodies slid unconscious down the side of the wall before the yellow-suited Grossologist sprinted around the corner, skidding across the smooth stone underfoot and running full tilt, panting heavily. She could still hear her brother's footsteps right behind her, keeping pace as they weaved from hallway to hallway. The dim lighting made moving so fast a bit treacherous, but in a place full of dangerous creatures who kept attacking on-sight, their best bet was to keep moving.

"You know, Abby." Ty caught up to run side-by-side with her. "It occurs to me that leaving a trail of unconscious bodies behind us might not be the stealthiest approach to this."

"We're in straight caverns going down under the Earth's surface with nowhere to take cover, if you have a way to do this stealthily, I'm open to suggestions!" Abby snapped back.

Before Ty could respond Abby skidded around a corner and suddenly slammed face-first into another of the hybrid creatures, stumbling over it and falling on top of it with a gasp. Abby immediately pushed herself up onto her knees and brought her fist back.

"Abby, wait!" Ty grabbed her arm and held it back before she could bring it down. "It's Regina!"

"Wha…?" Abby blinked and looked down in surprise to find that she was straddling the waist of a girl who didn't look like the others. She was shielding her face with four arms, behind which a pair of bright yellow eyes were glowing through narrowed slits that were bracing for the impact of her fist. "Regina?"

"Nngh?" The girl beneath her slowly opened her eyes again, moving her arms out of the way. "Y-yes… Ty?" She looked past Abby's shoulder at her brother, who was leaning over them with a concerned look on his face. "You made it!"

"I'm glad to see you're okay." Ty gripped her hand as Abby slid off of her waist and helped pull her to her feet. "We were looking for you, we need your help!"

"Of course!" Regina nodded. "I'll do anything you want me to."

"Hang on a second…" Abby rose to her feet. "Didn't Naomi say you were captured? What are you doing wandering around here on your own?"

"We don't have time for that." Regina snapped back. "Insectiva is planning another transformation, and she's going to hit a major city this time. If we don't stop her, her army is going to be doubled overnight, and it could very well provoke the government into coming down on these people with everything they've got!"

"Then we can't waste any more time. Do you know where the last group of people who were transformed are being kept?" Ty asked.

"Yes, they're down this way." Regina pointed behind her.

"Come on, I'll explain the plan on the way!" Ty turned to rush down the corridor, but Regina didn't follow immediately.

Instead she turned to Abby with a curious glint in her eye. "Come on then, time is of the essence, isn't it?" She flashed Abby a smile before turning to sprint after Ty, leaving Abby glaring after them.

"Something is wrong with this." Abby clenched her fists, but turned to follow her brother. She couldn't let him run off alone, especially if it was into a trap.


	21. Survival Instincts

Chapter 21: Survival Instincts

The spiral corridor led Creepie and Skipper pretty far underground, though they weren't sure exactly how far down they went. The dim lights that lined the walls were still shining though, so they didn't get lost anywhere along the way. Eventually they reached the bottom of the spiraling tunnel and emerged into a longer corridor, that led to a massive central chamber further down. The two of them stopped at the entrance of the chamber, peering in before daring to step foot into it. There were hundreds of moth-hybrids sitting around on the floors and leaning against the walls. Many of their bodies were limp, but they didn't seem to be injured at all.

"Whew…" Skipper whispered and covered his nose. "What is that reek?"

"If I had to guess? That would be Insectiva's pheromone." Creepie replied in a soft whisper. Her head dipped down slightly when she felt herself suddenly growing a bit lightheaded, her vision beginning to turn the world around her into a strangely dreamlike blur. "Nngh…" Creepie raised one hand to her head in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on. It was hard to think, hard to even keep herself on her feet.

"Creepie?" Skipper's voice seemed to echo through the haze, and the next thing Creepie knew she was being dragged through the rock tunnels by six strong arms clutching her around the torso. She tried to blink her way through the strange haze, but her vision remained clouded over.

"Oogh… Skipper…?" Creepie's voice trembled as she spoke.

"Relax, Creepie, I've got you." Skipper's voice told her. Creepie felt herself being gently set down on the ground, with her back leaning against a nearby wall. "You're not immune to these pheromones, Chris-Alice just used a blocker on you. It must be wearing off."

"I still don't get… why the pheromones work on me… differently…" Creepie grunted.

"Maybe it's because you're naturally this way, everyone else was just mutated. You're still one of a kind." Skipper guessed. Creepie nodded, feeling herself slip into the haze again. "Creepie, don't, don't go to sleep, don't lose control, you have to fight it." She felt one of his hands press against her cheek, stroking it with a gentle touch and making her eyes open slightly. "Keep conscious now, I'm afraid if you go to sleep you'll be under her control again."

"Hard to keep my eyes open…" Creepie replied. "Go… go after Insectiva… stop her and I'll… be okay…"

"No, Creepie." Skipper pulled her away from the wall, helping her stand up. Creepie stood with some difficulty, leaning heavily against his side. "You can do this. You've never let anyone tell you what to do or who to be, ever. You can't let Insectiva win, and I can't do this without you. I need you with me now, Creepie." She felt his lips press against hers, his arms still holding her on her feet. "Stay with me Creepie, stay with me."

"I… will…" Creepie raised one of her hands slowly, putting it on Skipper's shoulder and pulling him into another soft kiss. When she released it a few moments later and opened her eyes, she was looking straight into his, as crystal clear as they'd ever been. "I will…"

Skipper smiled happily and pressed his forehead against hers. "Thank you…"

"That's my line." Creepie returned the smile softly, then pulled away and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm fine, I can handle this, really."

"Good, so… what's our plan now? We have a bunch of people who are being exposed to strong pheromones, but no way to counteract those pheromones." Skipper stroked his chin in deep thought. "Do you think Abby and Ty have had any luck looking for Regina?"

"We can only hope. Come on, let's go see if we can find them. These look like the lowest levels, they have to be down here somewhere." Creepie turned to walk away from the massive chamber, stumbling slightly on her feet as her vision blurred again for just a moment.

"You sure you're okay, Creepie?" Skipper asked worriedly.

"I'm fine…" Creepie replied and raised a hand to her head. "I'll be fine…"

***

Abby walked with her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at Ty and Regina up ahead, who were heatedly discussing their plans to put an end to the current crisis. For a guy who just got together with the love of his short life, Ty sure was hanging on Regina's every word. Then again, Maria had warned that Regina was packing pheromones too, and those pheromones were capable of affecting humans. She wouldn't be using those against them, would she?

Just when Abby was starting to notice that they weren't running into any of the hybrid creatures who inhabited this place, Regina stopped inside a moderately large room with holes in the floors just barely big enough for a person to fit through, spaced out at even intervals. "This is Insectiva's prison cell, where she keeps her human prisoners." Regina told them.

"Does that mean Chris-Alice is in here?" Abby approached one of the holes and looked down. It was so deep the light from up here could barely reach the bottom, and it had no lights inside.

"Yes, it does." Regina nodded.

"So which hole is she in?" Abby approached one of the other holes, cupping her hands around her lips. "Chris-Alice! You in there!?"

"Abby? Is that you?" A voice hovered back up from inside one of the deep, dark holes.

"Chris-Alice!" Abby rushed to the pit and skidded to her knees beside it, narrowing her eyes to peer down into the darkness. She couldn't see anything but the vague, shadowy shape of a human figure. "Chris-Alice! Hold on, I'll find something to pull you up wi-AAAAUGH!" Abby gasped when something slammed into her back, shoving her forward over the hole. Her arms shot out to the sides, managing to grab the sides of the hole and hold herself up, though there was no way she could get up from this position being supported by her arms and legs.

"Hey! Regina, what are you doing!?" She heard Ty yell in surprise. There was a thud right over her, and she heard a crash against the floor nearby. "Leave my sister alone!"

"Do you really want to fight me, Ty?" Regina's voice was soft, almost sultry as she spoke. "Are you really sure you want to fight me?"

"I… I mean…" Ty stuttered.

"Yes! Yes you do!" Abby shouted as best she could over her shoulder from her precarious position. "She's a traitor, Ty! Bring her down! Huh?" Abby turned back to the shadows when she saw the shape move below her, moving toward the wall and slowly beginning to ascend towards her. "Chris-Alice? Is that really you?" The shadows remained silent as the figure moved up towards the slivers of dim light that shone into the hole around Abby's body.

A blue-gloved arm appeared in the light, gripping the rocks, followed by a second… then a third and a fourth arm appeared, gripping the rocks and easily pulling the figure up the side of the wall. Its fiery red hair swayed against its back as it climbed up towards her, turning its familiar face towards her to reveal a pair of glowing yellow eyes and a cocky smirk.

"Oh God… Chris-Alice!" Abby yelped in shock moments before Chris-Alice threw herself off of the wall, the small, narrow wings on her back carrying her straight up towards the top of the pit. Her four arms wrapped around Abby's torso and yanked her back down, despite her best efforts to cling to the top of the hole. The four arms heaved her down through the air, sending her crunching even harder down on the solid rock below.

"Guaaagh!" Abby grunted in pain when her back slammed into the rock hard ground. She tried to roll away, but Chris-Alice's foot came down hard on her side as she came down to land, kicking Abby into a skid across the rough stone. Chris-Alice lunged for her again, but Abby managed to haul herself out of the way, her back skidding across the wall for a moment before she managed to land on her knees and lurch to her feet.

"Wait! Wait!" Abby raised her hands in front of her as Chris-Alice turned towards her, her glowing yellow eyes glaring without a shred of recognition in them. "You don't want to do this. You don't. We're friends, and together we saved your best friend, remember?" Abby backed away from the creature until she felt her back pressed against the far wall, preventing her escape. "We haven't known each other very long, but I thought we were getting along, didn't you? Come on… you don't wanna do this!" Abby raised her arms in front of her in a combat position, watching Chris-Alice approach more slowly.

For a moment, Abby thought she saw Chris-Alice hesitate. Then, however, the creature lurched forward with a furious howl, her four arms raising into the air to come down on her all at once. Abby tried to fend off the blows, but they came too fast, two arms knocking hers aside so the next pair could slam into her face and torso. Again and again the fists rained down in waves, knocking her back against the wall, helpless to stop it as the blows landed all over.

She tried to fight her way out at first, swinging her arms in blind desperation, but she felt one arm sweep her defenses out of the way before two right fists slammed into her stomach at once, hard enough to lift her feet from the ground and slam her back against the wall. She yowled in pain as the fists lifted her up higher, scraping her back across the jacked rock wall before heaving her away from the wall, hauling her overhead and spiking her head-first onto the ground like a football.

Abby's body bounced off of the rocks, rolling once before coming to a stop face-down on the ground. She groaned in pain and grabbed at the ground, struggling to catch her breath and open her eyes. Her visor was gone, she suddenly noticed, shattered on the ground nearby where it lay in several pieces. She was also surprised to see blood on the ground below her head, dripping from the corner of her mouth. She reached up with one shaking hand to wipe at the corner of her mouth, gasping for air.

Oh my God, she thought to herself. Chris-Alice wasn't going to stop… she was going to kill her.

She grunted in pain when suddenly a foot dug into her side, kicking her to her back on the ground with a grunt where she curled into the fetal position, trying to get her mind clear enough to do something. She was in so much pain… but she had to fight it. She had to think, she had to move.

She grunted in pain again when two strong arms grabbed the end of her long ponytail, hauling her head off the ground and pulling her up to her knees. Chris-Alice's other two hand moved up to cup her cheek and throat, feeling her face while her lips twisted into a wicked smile.

***

Ty's breath was heavy as he struggled to remember what he was doing, what he wanted. He could hear the sound of the scuffle below in the hole carved into the ground, but he couldn't work up the nerve to do anything about it. It felt like his legs were rooted to the spot, held in place by a heart that was heavy with doubt. His limbs were trembling as sweat beaded on his brow, running down his cheeks. His heart only raced faster when he felt a soft hand wrap around his arm to touch his chest.

"That's a good boy." Regina's voice whispered softly into his ear. "Listen to my voice, and nothing else will matter to you."

"Why… are you doing this?" Ty had to practically force himself to speak. He wanted to listen to her, to listen to her voice, to melt into it… but Abby's grunts and cries of pain from below wouldn't let him. They kept breaking through, making his mind spin. "We wanted to be your friend, Regina… we wanted to help you."

Regina's hand closed on the front of his shirt, gripping it in a tight fist. She yanked him around suddenly, bringing him face to face with her glowing yellow eyes, with her wings and four arms spread out to the sides. "Do you really think you can be 'friends' with this as you are? I have never met a human around whom I could truly be comfortable, around whom I could truly be myself. Not even Skipper could look past this. What Insectiva seeks… could solve all of that."

"I…" Ty winced reflexively at the ferocity in her eyes, that looked like they wanted to swallow him whole. That was exactly what she was talking about, he realized. It was what Skipper had done when he saw her. "You're right…" Ty grunted. "You're right… you are horrifying to us… I can't deny it." Ty forced himself to look away from her.

"Then why should I trust any human when I could help Insectiva bring the world in line with us?" Regina put one gentle hand on his cheek, turning his head to face her again. "Why shouldn't I be around those of my own kind?"

"Because we can learn." Ty's eyes squeezed shut again when he heard a sickening impact from down in the hole. By now his sister's voice had gone silent, a fact that made him tremble as tears dripped down his cheeks. "We can learn, Regina! We can learn to accept you, but you have to give us a chance to do that! You can't jump into the world and demand to be accepted, you have to prove that you're worth accepting! You have to get to know people, and let them get to know you! That's how it works for everyone, human or not!"

Ty winced at the sound of another impact from inside the hole behind him. "Make her stop, leave Abby alone, she didn't even do anything to you!"

"Would you show such concern for me if it was me down there?" Regina asked.

"Please… stop it." Ty shook his head furiously, then brought his arm back. "STOP IT!" Without even thinking, his fist lashed out without warning, catching his captor completely off-guard. The blow slammed into her cheek, knocking her roughly back against the wall with a dull thud. For a moment she remained standing, then she slowly tilted forward and hit the ground with her eyes closed.

Suddenly finding himself able to move again, Ty whirled to rush back to the opening in the ground, his arm digging through the backpack on his back to pull out a shining metal gauntlet with a beak-like pincer on the end. He could see the redheaded, four-armed creature standing over his sister, its fists clenched at its sides as its wings spread proudly behind its back. His mind whirling in anger, Ty threw himself into the hole, raising the gauntlet above his head.

Chris-Alice didn't even have time to turn around before the gauntlet slammed into her head with a deafening 'thock'. Ty brought the gauntlet back, gripping it in both hands. "Leave my sister alone!" He swung the weapon as hard as he could. It connected right on her left temple, glancing off, but connecting with enough force to topple her limply to the ground on the rocks. The Goop Grabber was shooting sparks after the beating it had taken, but he didn't care. He tossed it aside and rushed over to Abby, who was unconscious on the ground.

"Abby!" Gripping her shoulder, he turned her onto her back, wincing when he looked at what was usually a pretty, if somewhat squirrely, face now dotted with red and blue bruises as a trail of blood ran from the side of her lip down to her throat. He slipped his arm around the back of her neck, pulling her off the ground to pull her cheek up against his chest. "Abby, are you okay? Please talk to me here, tell me you're okay." He shook her softly, trying to get any sort of response out of her.

"Nngh…" Abby twitched and grunted as one of her eyes began to open. She squeaked softly as if being struck again, but Ty just held onto her with a firm grip.

"It's okay, you're fine. I've got you." Ty held her close, smiling gently. "Geeze, you had me scared for a second there."

"Ty…?" Abby looked up at him in surprise, then smiled gratefully. "Wow, you actually resisted her to save me… I was sure I was gonna…"

"Well you're not." Ty told her with a soft smile. "Do you think you can stand up? Without Regina's help, our plan is shot… we have to get out of here and regroup."

"I think so…" Abby nodded and gripped his shoulders while he stood, pulling her to her feet. She wobbled a bit on her heels and fell against him, leaning on him for a few moments while her head cleared.

"Let's get out of this hole, right now, before they wake up." Ty moved towards the wall.

"Wait, we can't leave Chris-Alice." Abby complained suddenly.

"What? She just-"

"She was under Regina's control, I know she was. We can't just leave her here like this. We have to save her." Abby insisted.

"I guess…" Ty looked down at the unconscious hybrid bee girl in front of him with a bit of a glare in his eyes. "Alright… come on, let's get her out of this hole, then."

***

"Come on, we've got to get out of here." Ty gripped one of Chris-Alice's arms while Abby grabbed the other, and together the two of them yanked her out of the hole in the floor, pulling her out and laying her flat out on the ground. "Well… I'm glad she's not any heavier, I don't think I would've been able to lift her."

"Yeah, well, at least we're finally out." Abby plopped down on the ground for a moment, panting. "I don't like the look of this at all Ty, they knew we were coming and they were ready with this trap…" Her eyes widened. "It WAS all a trap! Of course, Regina knew we'd be coming!"

"You're right!" Ty's eyes widened. "That means they'll know Creepie and Skipper are here too! They're in trouble!"

"We have to find them and get out of here!" Abby jumped to her feet suddenly.

"How do we find them before Insectiva does?" Ty climbed to his feet as well. "Especially when we have to haul Chris-Alice around?"

"I don't know, but we have to try. Man, I can't believe we were so stupid…" Abby leaned down to grab her friend's arm, lifting it from the ground and heaving it over her shoulder. Ty took the other side, lifting her off the ground between them, her lower set of arms dangling in front of her while she hung from their shoulders.

"Hey, who knew Regina would turn on us? I thought we could depend on her…" Ty shook his head for a moment, then turned his eyes toward the tunnel in front of them and took a deep breath. "Come on, we've got to hurry, before Insectiva gets to the others." His sister nodded urgently and they both turned to leave, carrying Chris-Alice between them.

Neither of them noticed when Regina's head turned to look after them, her four hands clutching at the ground.


	22. The True Enemy

Chapter 22: The True Enemy

Creepie rushed through the hive with Skipper at her side, through the winding, seemingly aimless passageways that wound through the mountain, possibly very deep through the Earth itself. Creepie knew this was a common thing in the insect kingdom, or at least, normally she would have. Right now she was too busy fighting through the haze that kept creeping up in her vision, blurring the walls in front of her, though she never stopped or gave Skipper any sign that something was wrong. She could almost feel herself slipping away, but every time she pulled herself back. Skipper was counting on her… she could fight through this for him.

"I think we're about at the center of the bottom level, here." Skipper looked around at the tunnel in front of them, running the fingers of his three right hands along the wall beside him as he walked. "I don't see any sign of Abby and Ty, though…"

"Maybe they got held up somewhere…" Creepie guessed, trying to keep her voice calm and steady.

"I hope so." Skipper looked up as they reached the end of the tunnel. The two of them looked around in surprise at the massive cavern that lay before them, similar to the one with the people who had recently been transformed, but different in that the entire room was covered with holes in every wall. If any place in the entire mountain looked like a bee hive, this would definitely have to be it.

"This is definitely the center of the hive." Creepie noted, looking around at the holes in the walls around her. It was kind of spooky, really, like a hundred black eyes staring at them without ever blinking.

"Well you are a smart one." Creepie whirled to look for the source of the voice, seeing a hybrid with a body covered by short blonde hairs leaning against the wall near one of the many entrances. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and a cocky smirk plastered on her lips as she regarded them with a curious expression. "Creepie Creecher… your reputation precedes you. Your reputation as a filthy traitor to your own race."

"What do you know about this 'race'?" Creepie demanded with a huff. "You're just a human who was turned into this. I'm the only one here who's naturally this way."

"Maybe so, but we're here now, and we're here to stay." The girl pushed off the wall and turned to walk up to them, her hands resting on her swaying hips. "So you'd might as well get used to it sister… as much as you have time to, anyway." She cackled with a grin spreading across her lips. "I'm afraid your time in this world is about to run out… such a shame too, you're kind of pretty. Not as pretty as me of course." The girl giggled and gestured to herself.

"Uh, I don't know what you think you're doing threatening us, but… we kind of outnumber you." Skipper pointed out.

"I was hoping you'd say that!" The girl cackled again. "Because Paige always has something up her sleeve, even when she's naked! Mwahahahaha!" She laughed haughtily as a deafening buzzing sound erupted around the cavern. It echoed across the empty walls all around them as creatures began to pour out of the tunnels. Creepie and Skipper moved closer together, glaring at the creatures as they closed in around them, leaving an empty circle around them and Paige.

"Well, I guess I walked right into that one." Skipper gulped. He blinked when Creepie didn't respond, looking at her face with a worried look in his eye. "Creepie? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Creepie replied through gritted teeth. Her eyes swept around the mutants gathered around them, their forms becoming hazy in her vision, turning them into a giant multicolor blur.

"What's the matter, Creepie? Realizing how hopeless it was to turn against Her Highness?" Paige cackled. "I can't say I blame you, but I'm afraid it's simply too late to go back now."

"Not so quickly, my child." A gnarled old woman's voice countered over the buzzing of restless butterfly wings. The buzzing instantly stopped and all eyes turned skyward as Insectiva appeared in the highest, largest hole in the cavern, hovering down into the room on the back of a massive, red-eyed mosquito. "If she has seen the futility of her fight, and the righteousness of our cause, then let her rejoin us. I would welcome her with open arms." Insectiva smiled a genuinely warm smile.

"She'd never help you!" Skipper whirled on Creepie, gripping her shoulder. "Creepie, tell them!"

"I…" Creepie put one hand to her head, gripping it in frustration. No, she didn't want to help Insectiva, no, she didn't believe in her cause. She had to clear her head, she had to.

"Creepie?" Skipper put one of his hands on her shoulder worriedly, leaning down to try to look at her eyes. "Creepie, come on, you can do this."

Without warning Creepie's arm snapped up, almost on its own power, to smack his hand away from her. He stumbled back in surprise as Creepie panted, her shoulders shaking as she looked up at him. Maybe Insectiva was right… for her whole life she'd been afraid, afraid of humans who would come destroy her life, destroy her family. While they had gained acceptance in Middlington, what about the rest of the humans? That didn't absolve them of their guilt, of the billions of innocent insects they killed every day.

"Creepie, come on, I know you can keep fighting this." Skipper moved toward her again, his arms raising in front of him, along with the extra four arms on his Tarantula Boy costume. "You have to, don't leave me now. I love you."

"You know humans can't be trusted as they are, Creepie. Come back to us… it's okay that you had doubts, just come back to your family." Insectiva told her from the air.

"Creepie, fight her! I know you can!" Skipper shouted.

"Sh-shut up!" Creepie howled, panting heavily. "I can't think…" she opened her eyes and looked around at the growing haze around her. She felt Skipper touch her arm again and she flung her arm out, knocking him away and whirling to advance on him. "I said leave me alone!"

"Damnit, Creepie!" Skipper backed away from her defensively, raising his hands in front of him as she advanced. The crowd of hybrids around them moved to keep them in the middle of the empty circle. "Don't do this, Creepie, I love you!"

"Humans don't love anything!" Creepie growled, clenching her fists at her sides. "Anything but themselves!" She moved to attack, but before she could even throw a single blow she heard a shout echo off of the walls around them. Creepie whirled to look up in time to see a yellow-suited figure dropping down from one of the tunnels above them, both of her hands raised over her head as she came down towards the giant mosquito hovering in the center of the room.

"You've done enough damage, Insectiva!" Abby came down right on top of the gnarled old woman, slamming into her and knocking her against the giant bug's back. The bug lurched down in surprise as her weight came down, struggling to keep its altitude. Ty came down right behind her, landing on the bug's back right behind his sister, rushing to help her wrestle with the old woman.

"Augh! Grossologists! Regina was supposed to take care of you!" Insectiva howled in anger. "Children! Help me!" All of the hybrids on the ground whirled at once to look up at her and took to the air all at once like a buzzing, angry cloud.

Creepie moved to follow, but she gasped when something sticky slammed into her back, sticking her wings together behind her. She flailed through the air as she came back down hard on her stomach, grunting in pain. She climbed to her hands and knees and looked back to see that her wings were gummed up with sticky white webbing, while Skipper stood behind her, holding one of the Web Spinners on his wrists.

Creepie growled and climbed to her feet, finding herself alone on the ground with Skipper. "You're not going to do anything you'll regret Creepie, you're not like that." Skipper told her firmly. "But I'm not going to fight you either… you need to wake up."

"Stop talking to me like that, human! RRGH!" Creepie howled in frustration and threw herself at him, bringing one fist back.

***

Regina crawled through the tunnels on all six limbs after Ty and Abby, growling in anger. She couldn't believe Ty had bested her like that, and they had even taken Chris-Alice with them. She couldn't stand being beaten, least of all by some arrogant humans who believed they were so much better than every other species on the planet. Insectiva was right, humans were all the same, and she wasn't going to let them stop the evolution that was underway.

She could hear furious buzzing up ahead, indicating that Insectiva's own trap had already been sprung. Creepie wouldn't be stalking through the hive for much longer, and then they could continue with their plans. Still, Regina had to find Ty and Abby to stop them before they could interfere, so she picked up the pace.

She gasped and came to a stop in front of a tunnel exit that led out into the main central chamber. There was a body lying in front of the chamber. When she moved closer to it, she recognized it in the soft glow from the lights strewn around the tunnels. She placed one hand to Chris-Alice's forehead, feeling that she was still alive, just knocked unconscious. Good, she thought to herself. She hadn't wanted to see Chris-Alice hurt, she'd wanted to see Abby and Ty hurt…

"Back off or Insectiva gets it, I mean it!" Abby's voice echoed up to the tunnel, drawing Regina's attention. She crawled up to the tunnel entrance to see Abby and Ty perched on the giant mosquito's back, holding Insectiva between them as the army of hybrid insects hovered just out of range with hateful death-glares.

Insectiva barked out a confident laugh. "You Grossologists are fools! You're here in the middle of my hive surrounded by my loyal children! There's no way you'll ever escape! Submit to me, and I may deem you fit to turn into one of us instead of having you destroyed!"

"Sorry lady, but I think the wings would clash with my outfit." Abby gripped her tighter, pulling a pained grunt out of her. The hybrids around her growled in angry, but she glared at them again. "I mean it, any closer and we take care of her, permanently!"

There was nowhere for them to go, Regina thought to herself, and yet she kept fighting on, stalling for time and probably looking for a way out. It was almost admirable, she thought to herself, however futile the gesture was. She was about to move to help Insectiva when she saw movement past the mosquito on the bare floor, a flash of a purple body alongside a black one. Curious, Regina slipped out of the tunnel and climbed down the wall on all six limbs, trying not to call attention to herself.

She was caught by surprise when she saw a hybrid with purple hairs wearing a black spider-web laced dress slamming Skipper into the wall so hard the back of his head bounced off of it before he had time to collapse to the ground in a crumpled heap, grunting in pain and clutching the back of his head.

"Stop talking to me that way!" The girl shoved Skipper's head roughly into the rocks, screaming wildly in a familiar voice. Regina's eyes widened slightly when she realized it was Creepie Creecher. Of course… Skipper had told her Creepie was different, and these creatures were modeled after Creepie. Seeing it made it more real, however. Creepie really was a hybrid, a one-of-a-kind creature like nothing else… just like Regina.

"I am not going to buckle down to some human, I'm not!" Creepie's foot slammed into Skipper's side several times, sending him rolling along the floor.

"I don't… want you to." Skipper grunted, clasping his stomach with both arms.

"Then what do you want? What else do humans ever want?" Creepie marched after him, her fists clenching at her sides. When he didn't respond she dropped to her knees and shoved him onto his back, raising one fist behind her head. "What do you want!?"

"Creepie…" Skipper looked up at her, his chest heaving and his eyes looking into hers with genuine worry. "I want… Creepie." Creepie snarled and brought her fist down, but her knuckles stopped barely an inch in front of his face. Skipper flinched, but didn't look away, his eyes meeting hers as one of his hands moved to her elbow. "I want… the girl who pulled me out of my old life. I want the first girl who ever smiled at me while I was onstage. I want the first girl whose hand I ever held, I want the first girl I ever kissed… I need her."

Creepie squeezed her eyes shut, her fist quaking in front of him. She leaned forward slowly until her forehead was pressed against his, her whole body shuddering. Skipper's arms slipped around her slowly, pulling her up against him gently as he gave her a gentle kiss. Creepie didn't respond to it, but her body did relax, unmoving, on top of him. Perhaps she was afraid she would attack him if she did move, but whatever the reason she just lay there while he accepted her with open arms and a soft embrace.

Regina narrowed her eyes dangerously. He accepted her, but he cringed when he saw Regina without her disguise. Why would he do that?

"_We can learn, Regina! We can learn to accept you, but you have to give us a chance to do that! You can't jump into the world and demand to be accepted, you have to prove that you're worth accepting! You have to get to know people, and let them get to know you! That's how it works for everyone, human or not!"_

The things Ty had told her earlier suddenly came screaming back into her mind, giving her pause. He'd known Creepie for a long time… she'd proven herself…

Regina raised her eyes to the crowd of hybrids above her, moving around the giant mosquito who still hovered in the center of the room. Through the cloud she could still see Ty and Abby perched on the insect's back, their faces twisted into expressions of desperation. They knew there was no way out for them, the instant they let go of Insectiva, they would be swarmed. The instant they killed Insectiva, they would be swarmed. No matter what they did, they were going to die…

Regina took a deep breath, then beat her wings to hover into the air, hovering into the pack of moth-hybrids, moving among them deftly. She circled around them a few times, keeping hidden from those in the center of the circle, then hovered inward to land on the mosquito's back, facing Abby and Ty.

"Hey!" Abby let go of Insectiva and whirled to face her, growling. "Don't you dare think you're going to sneak up on us!"

Regina stared at her for a moment, then turned to look around at the hybrids who were hovering around them, who were now staring solely at Regina with curious looks on their faces. "You don't want to do this… none of you do."

"Regina?" Abby blinked in surprise.

"What are you doing!?" Insectiva demanded.

"You all want to be free, you all want to go home, you all want to go back to your lives. Doesn't that sound good?" She asked. The hybrids exchanged quick glances with one-another, their guard lowering as they listened to her speak.

"You're right." Paige blinked in surprise. "I… really don't want to hurt anyone." She looked around. Those hovering around her nodded as well.

"Stop it! No! Listen to ME!" Insectiva raised her palms, spraying a strange mist into the air, but it didn't seem to affect any of the creatures hovering around them. It was already overpowered by Regina's own specially-made pheromone.

"Regina." Abby gaped in surprise, staring at her. "You're on our side again…?"

"Are you complaining?" Regina smirked slightly before turning back to the others. "Come on, everyone… let's get out of here."

"Alright." Paige grinned and turned toward the others. "We're going to go home!" The hybrids let out a cheer as Regina gave them a smile, raising her hands. It had been so easy, she thought to herself. That was all she had to do to put an end to everything…

"Looks like it's over, Insectiva." Abby grinned and tugged on her arm. "And all it took was a few sweet words from your 'accomplice'."

"You arrogant, foolish humans! You cannot stop the insect revolution! You can never silence the cries of nature!" Insectiva threw her head back and let out a piercing scream so loud everyone in the room was forced to cover their ears. For a moment dead silence ruled the caverns, but then there came a tremendous rumbling sound that shook the walls. Loose rocks broke off from the ceiling and tumbled to the ground as everyone cast about for the cause.

"What did you do!?" Abby demanded.

"You will not stop me this time, Grossologists, nothing can stop me!" Insectiva howled in fury moments before something massive punched through the wall beside them, ripping through the solid stone like it was nothing. It looked like a green blade, which swept through the room, knocking away dozens of the gathered hybrids, sending them hurtling unsteadily into the walls and floor before the blade came back around to knock others away, giving the mosquito a clear path out of the swarm.

"NYAH!" Insectiva took advantage of their surprise to shove Abby and Ty away from her, sending them flying off the mosquito's back.

"Hey! Catch them!" Regina took off after them, managing to catch Ty before he could hit the ground. Paige swept down to catch Abby in both arms, turning up away from the ground right before they could slam into it full-speed.

Insectiva cackled again as the blade swept up again to lift the mosquito on top of it like a massive arm, raising her fists in triumph. "Let this hive be your tomb, Grossologists! You will never stop me again!" She laughed uproariously as the massive green blade drew back into the wall. The only other visible part of the creature was a pair of glowing yellow eyes before it once again turned away, punching through the layers of rock above them, causing the entire tunnel system to shudder.

"The hive is going to collapse!" Ty exclaimed in shock. "We're going to be buried alive!"

"I know the way out, just follow me!" Paige exclaimed.

"What about Chris-Alice?" Creepie stood up from the ground, her hand now gripping Skipper's. "We can't leave her here."

Regina whirled on the group of hybrids. "Everyone get out of here, carry those who are unconscious or can't fly." She whirled on a small group of them waiting nearby. "You all go get the new converts and make sure they can get out in time. I'll get Chris-Alice and meet you at the surface! MOVE!" She clapped her four hands together, and everyone around her sprang into action. Two of them swept down to lift Creepie and Skipper off the ground, while others swept down to lift those who had been knocked unconscious by the green blade. One of them took Ty from her arms, freeing her up to fly into the air toward the tunnel she'd come out of.

She flew a short ways into it, where Chris-Alice was sitting up, rubbing her head painfully. "Oohhh, my head… it feels like the ground is shaking…"

"Funny you should mention that." Regina landed beside her. She gasped and whirled around when she heard a deafening crash. Rocks were tumbling down over the tunnel, the collapse racing towards them like a wave on the beach. Chris-Alice squeaked in shock when Regina wrapped all four arms around her torso, then threw herself forward, her wings beating rapidly at the air to send them shooting down the tunnel like a bullet.

Another thunderous crash rumbled through the tunnels, joined by the horrendous screeching noise of an insect breaking through the layers of the Earth on its way to the surface. Regina tried to drown it out, weaving from tunnel to tunnel with Chris-Alice clutched in her arms. Rocks fell from the ceiling all around them, pummeling them from every side, but she didn't stop moving for even an instant. Even when one of the tunnels ahead of them began to collapse in towards them.

Chris-Alice shrieked at the sight of the rocks falling towards them, but Regina whirled down an adjacent passageway just as the rocks right above them began to cave in, showering down around her feet while she sped down the newest tunnel toward the fiery orange light up ahead. She could already see black shapes taking to the air outside. Indeed, as she emerged she saw hundreds of the insects from below just emerging from other entrances, or already hovering in the air around them.

"Whoa…" Chris-Alice squinted against the sudden sunlight. "What's going on here…?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out." Regina looked back, then lurched forward to avoid several boulders that were tumbling down the side of the anthill. She flew a safe distance away, noting quickly that the hybrids were following right on her tail. More and more of them piled out of the mountain even as it collapsed, pouring out into a cloud so thick they nearly obscured the mountain as it suddenly became little more than a pile of rolling boulders and rubble. There was no way to know, for now, how many hadn't made it out in time… but it looked like most of them had.

Regina hovered down towards the grass, flanked on all sides by the hybrids. She touched down with a sigh and collapsed to her knees, allowing Chris-Alice to fall to her butt in front of her. Her limbs were shaking, she suddenly noticed. She had barely had time to think about it while she was running for her life…

Regina's head snapped up and looked back when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She was surprised to see Skipper giving her a grateful smile. "Maria told you you'd make an excellent leader, didn't she?"

"Yeah, you did great." Ty noted with a smile as he and Abby moved to join them. Regina looked around at the hybrids who were gathered around them, staring at her in admiration. She paused when she realized the one standing beside Skipper was the one in the black spider-web dress, wings gummed up by sticky white webbing, and looking at her with a familiar face.

"Creepie…" Regina climbed to her feet slowly, looking at the girl clearly for the first time in a long time.

"Regina…" Creepie stared at her for a moment, then held out her hand. "Thank you."

Regina looked at it for a moment, then smiled and took her hand in a firm shake. Abby, Ty, and Skipper broke into pleased grins, but something still seemed wrong. It was clear Creepie realized this as well, because she turned to look back towards the mountain of rubble as it finally began to settle down. "Where's Insectiva?"

The silence in the grassy field lasted only a moment before a tremendous rumble echoed from under the ground, tossing many of the hybrids to their backs moments before suddenly, the massive green blade from before pierced the Earth and rose high into the air above them. It stood upright for a brief moment before coming down across the grass right towards them, forcing Regina and everyone else to scramble out of its way or be crushed underneath it.

A black shroud of insects poured out of the hole in the ground, skittering across the grass and flying through the air as the blade pulled a body up behind it. A fearsome head with shining yellow eyes lifted into the air, followed by a body that looked as graceful as it did lethal, its two blades pulling it up until it could stand tall on the grass, more than five times taller than any of the hybrids standing on the grass before it.

"Mom!" Creepie exclaimed in surprise as she looked up at the massive Praying Mantis.

Insectiva barked out another laugh from the insect's shoulder. "The revolution cannot be stopped now! I'll kill you Grossologists, I'll kill the traitors, and my children will come back to me!" She laughed again while another massive form of a mosquito lifted out from the hole Creepie's mother had made in the ground. Her hands lifted into the air, and the swarm of insects swept toward them like a surging, seething cloud.

"Heeeyy!" Paige screamed as the swarm of insects reached her. "Get them off! Oowww they're biting me!" She turned to run, but the crowd was already working up into a panic aside from Ty, Abby, Creepie, Skipper, and Chris-Alice huddled together in the middle of the commotion.

"We can't fight these insects, they're too small, and we don't have any weapons that would work." Ty noted.

"Not to mention they're my family, we can't hurt them, they're just under HER control!" Creepie growled and whirled on Regina, grabbing the front of her leotard. "You freed the people, can't you free the bugs!?"

"No, I can't! My pheromones only overpowered Insectiva's because these people are also human!" Regina replied. "It won't work with bugs, her pheromones will be stronger!"

"They're coming!" Ty backed away from the swarm slowly as it approached their position, swarming over the hybrids and attacking without mercy.

"AAIIIEEEE!" Abby shrieked as the bugs reached her, swarming over her and her brother with the viciousness of a pack of rabid wolves.

"GET THEM OFF! Get 'em off!" Chris-Alice screamed and flailed her limbs desperately as the ones on the ground covered her body like a blanket.

"Don't do this guys! Don't!" Creepie shouted as well, raising her arms against the swarm that slammed into her head-on, driving her back into Skipper, who was already struggling to fight off a swarm that was making its way inside of his suit.

Regina kicked herself into the air, shooting straight up like a missile. A few bugs turned to follow her, but she instantly turned to keep flying, flying straight for the Praying Mantis that was looking down over the battlefield. Insectiva grinned and glanced over at her when she was almost there, and one of the mantis' claws lashed out like a snake strike, slamming into her with a loud crack and sending her hurtling back through the air.

Regina caught herself before she could fly into anything, righting herself in mid-air while the mantis turned to face her, its blades lifted into the air in front of it. "Why did you betray me? Why do neither of you understand the world I am trying to create!?" Insectiva howled in frustration. "You know the humans will never accept insectkind! This is the only way!"

"You talk too much, Insectiva." Regina snarled. "You are not the queen of the world, you won't be the queen of the world and you will bow to the only true insect queen!" Regina threw herself forward again, taking off like a shot. The mantis' arms lashed out again and again, whipping through the air fast enough to suck her towards them with each pass, but she was the best flyer in the world after doing it for her whole life. She kept herself steady, weaving through the slashing blades on her way in past the insect's defenses.

"What are you going to do, child?" Insectiva sneered. "You can't possibly bring this noble warrior down!"

"No, but these bugs won't obey orders to attack if there's no one to obey!" Regina spun around one last slash from the praying mantis, spinning head over heels towards Insectiva until she finally evened out, coming down towards her with her legs spread open, the stinger on her backside pointed straight at its target.

Insectiva's eyes widened. "You wouldn't! you'll- UAAAGH!" Insectiva screamed in surprise, her eyes widening in fear when the stinger struck home, plunging straight into her stomach and knocking her back right off of the mutant bugs' shoulder. They both hurdled back over its shoulder down through the air towards the grass, spinning around one-another on the way. Regina's eyes squinted shut when she felt her stinger crack, then completely break off, separating them moments before they reached the ground.

Regina's limp body slammed into the grass, bouncing a bit before settling down among the long, gently swaying blades of green. Everything was deathly silent… the screams from her companions had died down, the buzzing of angry insects had faded into nothingness. All that remained was the soft wind that blew through the fields, tickling her bare skin with the blades of grass that brushed against her.

Above her she could see the praying mantis hunching over, shaking its huge head, then turning to look down at her with its shining yellow eyes. It looked like it was going to crush her for a second, but it didn't, instead it knelt down beside her, reaching out to her with a gentle hand.

Regina grunted as she was lifted off the grass. She tried to sit up, but her limbs felt weak. Something warm and wet could be felt against her legs and lower back. She tried to lift her head to look, but even that was too difficult for her to manage.

The world around her began to blur, and the sound of people talking in fast, panicked tones was fading into the distance. She knew what was happening… and she expected it. She knew what happened to a bee who stung someone, and she had to go and do it anyway. Oh well… at least maybe she'd finally proven herself to the others as someone worth knowing…

This thought comforted her as she slipped into the darkness.


	23. Never to be Forgotten

Epilogue: Never to be Forgotten

_Finally, the siege against the human race came to an end, and Insectiva was put behind bars… or she would be, once she recovered enough in the hospital to be moved to a cell. It was a fitting end to her reign of terror that she was brought down by one of the creatures whom she wanted to use to repopulate the planet._

Middlington had never seemed so small before to Creepie as she made her way down the sidewalk with Skipper walking beside her. Their hands were clasped between them, almost desperate not to let go of one-another as they approached one of the larger houses on the outskirts of the town, but it had been a very long and tiring journey. They both needed to rest, and besides, there would be plenty more time to spend together in the future.

At his door, Skipper turned to her and pulled her into a gentle, comforting kiss, which Creepie returned in kind. She had missed his kisses so much…

_It was also kind of funny… Insectiva had set out to create a new race to replace humanity… and in that endeavor, she had half-succeeded. Only Insectiva knew how to create the mutagen that had transformed people into insect hybrids, along with the cure that might be able to turn them back, and she wasn't going to talk any time soon. Those who had been her victims were stuck as they were, though there was one fortunate part of it. It turned out that a moth-hybrid, properly shaved and groomed, could easily pass for a regular human… except for one minor detail._

"Are you ready, Naomi?" Ty knocked softly on the bathroom door.

"I don't know about this…" Naomi gulped from inside.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm sure you look great." Ty told her with a soft voice. He stepped back when he heard the lock click open and the doorknob began to turn. The door slowly swung open and Naomi slowly slipped into view, a blush on her pale white cheeks as she slowly slid out between the door and the doorframe. She was wearing a loose strapless dress that flowed down her silky smooth skin, but didn't collide with the pair of glittering gossamer wings that spread outward from her back.

With a blush she looked him in the eye. "What do you think?"

"I think it looks absolutely beautiful." Ty stepped forward with a smile to give her a gentle, reassuring kiss on the cheek.

_She hadn't replaced humanity, but she had created a new race that could continue to grow and flourish alongside humanity. There was no way to keep this hidden from the people of the world, and the news networks were buzzing with questions and commentary, some positive and some negative, but none of that mattered. They were here, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Creepie was even given the chance to name this new species, since she was the first of their kind. She hadn't wanted this responsibility, but everyone told her it was her right… so she'd chosen._

_They were called "Angels" now, after a creature in a book Creepie had read once a while back. Humans with beautiful shining wings… it seemed a fitting enough name, though some people took exception to it. Chris-Alice, however, didn't fall into this race, and couldn't pass for a human the way everyone else could. Contacts could hide her eye color, her wings could be hidden under a simple shirt, and the mutagen hadn't been powerful enough to give her a stinger, but there was still one detail that stood out…_

Chris-Alice approached the center of Middlington Park, where a group of girls were gathered in cheerleading uniforms, talking among themselves in hushed tones. Carla was standing in front of the gathered group, including Melanie, who was watching her with a somewhat sad expression. She had gotten her cast off a week ago, though they still told her she wasn't supposed to do any strenuous running or jumping for a while.

"Okay girls, we need to make sure we're in top shape for the next game. I know we're down a girl, but I think we can still make this work if we… uh…" Carla glanced over when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, eyeing Chris-Alice with a look of shock on her face. "Wh-whoa." Chris-Alice wasn't a bashful girl, but she had to blush as all of the girls turned to look at her, each of them looking down at the four arms that hung down from her sides.

"Chris-Alice…?" Melanie broke away from the other girls, approaching her with a mystified expression on her face. "Is that really you?"

"Yeah… it's me." Chris-Alice raised all four arms out to her sides with a soft blush. "Not much I can… do about this…"

Melanie stared at her for several more long moment, then fell against her torso and gave her a tight hug. "More arms to be hugged by!" She giggled. The other cheerleader behind her exchanged a glance, then began giggling among themselves, moving to stand around them.

Chris-Alice blinked in surprise, then gave her a soft smile and wrapped her four arms around her, holding her gently. She should have known they would accept her.

_While the human hybrids had to settle and get used to their new forms, at least until the experts could come up with an antidote, Lab Rat at least had enough experience with Insectiva's mutagens to cure Creepie's family, shrinking her parents back down to their normal size so they could return to Dweezewold without breaking it. They were thankful, as was Creepie. A giant Praying Mantis was sure to attract a lot of negative attention from the general public who didn't know about them. Still, there was one other loose end that they had to see tied up…_

Creepie knelt in the middle of the living room in Dweezewold Manor, smiling and running her hands over the backs of the hundreds of bugs that coated the floor all around her. They were all chattering and smiling, glad to be home with their family intact. Creepie smiled as they crawled up her arms, hugging themselves close to her hairs. She could have shaved herself like all the other Angels did, she supposed, but she liked being this way.

Her mother gave her a warm smile and moved up to pat her hand before there was a sudden knock on the front door. Creepie's head snapped towards the door while her relatives crept back down her arms to the floor, turning to look at it almost suspiciously. Creepie glanced down at them, then pushed herself to her feet and approached the door, stepping lightly over her family until she could reach the doorknob and pull it inward.

Maria stood on the other side of the door with a gentle smile on her face, and her hands resting on the shoulders of a slightly smaller girl in a thick poncho. Creepie nodded and stepped aside, allowing the girl to enter. She moved stiffly, her legs fumbling across the wooden floor as she entered with Maria holding her upright and steady.

She stopped just inside the door, looking down at Caroleena and Vincent Creecher, who were staring up at her with studying eyes. Finally Caroleena gestured to the poncho and gave her a soft, encouraging smile.

Regina Beesley smiled back softly and reached up to pull off her poncho to leave herself standing in her leotard, wincing as it slid over the bandages that wound up from her thigh to her lower back, where her stinger had once been but was now a gaping hole that was still healing. She reached up and removed her contacts as well, lowering them to her sides and looking down at the diminutive family in front of her. The praying mantis and the mosquito exchanged a swift glance, then gave her a simultaneous smile and stepped aside for her to enter, the bug family behind them moving aside to make a pathway for her into the back.

Creepie smiled as well and patted her new sister on the back, pushing her towards the back with a gentle shove. Regina made her way into the back while Creepie turned to take her things from Regina, including the needles and counteragent she would need to keep her body's pheromone levels in check from now on.

"Take care of her, Creepie." Maria told her. "She's still new to this kind of society. It may take time for her to adjust."

"I wouldn't worry about that." Creepie replied with a smile. "I've been there too. My friends worked wonders for me… I'm sure they can do the same for Regina."

_Some people would call this the end of a story, but in most stories, there is no real end, just the beginning of another chapter in our lives. For Creepie, for Regina, and for all of the people Insectiva mutated, this couldn't be more true. Abby, Ty, and Naomi had gone home, though their home is going to be pretty different from what they'd known before. Creepie, Regina, Skipper, and Chris-Alice had all sworn to keep the secret of their job with the Bureau of Grossology, while nobody else, including Paige, had pieced together that they were anything more than helpers in stopping Insectiva. As far as anyone knew, Creepie and Regina were the only heroes. Maybe it was unfair, but it was what they'd wanted, so they had to accept it. As long as they kept in touch, of course, which Abby and Chris-Alice had sworn to do._

Abby heaved a sigh of relief as Ringworm Jr. High School hove into sight over the next hill, looking as bright, cheerful, and above all, normal as it ever had. Ty walked beside her with his books in hand, while Naomi walked on his other side with a smile on her face, her dark yellow gown swinging off of her hips while her moth wings fluttered in the gentle breeze behind her. Abby felt good, despite the lingering bruises that remained on her face and arms.

"It sure will be good to get back to normal, won't it?" Ty heaved a sigh of his own. "With no crisis bigger than an upcoming math quiz."

"I know I feel a lot better now." Naomi said with a dreamy smile on her lips. Ty blushed and cleared his throat with a grin.

"Hey, guys." Abby blinked and whirled in surprise to see a boy approaching them from the shade of a nearby tree, where he'd apparently been waiting.

"Lab Rat!" Abby grinned and ran toward him, wrapping him up in a brief hug. "I'm glad you made it through all of this okay!"

"Heh, yeah, same to you guys. Not that I doubted you, but things did get pretty intense for a while there." Lab Rat told them.

"Yeah, they did." Abby blushed slightly. "Look, Lab Rat, I'm sorry about what I said…"

Lab Rat held up his palm to silence her. "Water under the bridge, Abby. Besides, I really should've believed you from the beginning. You've never lied before, don't know why you'd start now." He gave her a comforting smile. "What's important is that everything's gone back to normal."

"Well…" Abby looked up at the sky, watching several students hovering through the air overhead in a rush to get to the school before class started. "THIS might take some getting used to, but I can see your point." Lab Rat chuckled.

"Hey, Abby." Abby lowered her eyes to the grass again as Paige approached, wearing a top that left her shoulders and upper chest bare to avoid clashing with her emerald green wings, coupled with her usual skirt.

"Paige, hey." Abby gave her a curious look. "What's up?"

"Don't think just because you helped save us all that makes you cool or anything…" Paige looked around conspiratorially, then seemed to relax a bit and hold out two pieces of paper to her. "Consider these your reward… and a… a…" She winced.

"Thank you?" Naomi suggested helpfully.

"Yes." Paige heaved as if a heavy weight had suddenly been lifted. "A thank you. For what you did."

Abby smiled down at the new birthday party invitations, which had both Abby's and Ty's names written on them. "Wasn't your birthday last week?"

"You think I'm gonna let some psycho taking over the town stop me from celebrating my birthday? Hah!" Paige scoffed. "The party WILL go on!"

"Well then, we'll definitely be there." Abby told her. "Thank you."

Paige nodded curtly, seeming to be at a loss for words for the first time since Abby had met her as she turned to march toward the school. Abby, Ty, Lab Rat, and Naomi exchanged brief glances, then started chuckling among themselves as they turned to follow her towards the school. It felt like they were starting everything anew, here. Still, it wasn't entirely bad. Even Paige could sense that this was the beginning of something new for both them and the world.


End file.
